The Christmas lights on Mercedes Avenue that has been a perennial attraction in Manteca for a dozen years may come back in 2012.

“There’s a good possibility they’ll be back next year,” said Renee Brock who is the inspiration behind the annual project that has delighted young and old from near and far.

“We were going to retire the lights, but (because of) the comments (from people) on Facebook and everything, he just feels like he’s letting a lot of the people down. He’s mulling it around in his head that he might want to continue it for a few more years,” she said.

“We just got a card in the mail from Citrus Heights, from someone who had heard that there will be no more lights this year. They’re just expressing their good wishes and that they’ll miss the lights. A lot of people, especially on Facebook, have responded saying ‘thank you’ for the memories that we’ve made with the families,” she added.

Their Facebook page, Christmas Lights, has nearly 6,000 fans to date.

Last month, Renee and her husband Dale made the sad announcement that they have made the difficult decision to not have the Christmas Lights this year. Dale, the architect and builder of the elaborate and towering spectacle of lights, broke five ribs and sustained a tear in one of his lungs when he fell while helping his twin brother Eugene renovate his house in Manteca around the time he was scheduled to get started on the Christmas lights in September.

While he was healing as well as could be expected, Renee said her husband was in no physical condition to tackle the challenging task of setting up the poles that formed the massive decorations’ flying framework far above the family’s modest single-story home, for starters. The other challenges included the installation of the angels with trumpets, a helicopter, the patriotic tribute to all members of the military, a long and elaborate train set that went round and round the front and side yards, plus hanging the 130,000 lights with the help of family members.

Renee said that once they get the Christmas Lights going again next year, they will probably let it run for another five years.

For now, though, their focus is getting Dale get well.

“His pain level is just up and down, up and down. He comes and goes on his pain level,” Renee said of her husband who always made the task of climbing up and down the poles look easy, thanks to his experience as a lineman and transmission builder for Pacific Gas & Electric Company where he holds a supervisory position today.

She said they were also moved to reconsider their decision when they started receiving offers of help from many people after their announcement appeared in the Manteca Bulletin.

“We got responses out of Facebook from people who were volunteering their time,” Renee said.

Many people who filed comments in the Manteca Bulletin online story offered their help as well. Others placed phone calls to the Bulletin with the same offer, with some leaving their e-mail addresses and phone numbers.

The Brocks are extremely grateful to all the people who offered to help. However, due to time constraints – “we have to be ready by Thanksgiving – and trying to get that many people organized, we couldn’t make it. But we appreciated all the offers of help. We want to say thank you to the community for their support and good wishes and offers of help,” Renee said.

“Ed Cardoza came to the house the other day and asked if anybody in Manteca was organizing anything to get the lights up. But we just didn’t want anybody getting hurt, and there’s the liability part of it, too,” added Renee.

While the flood of Christmas Lights will be missing on Mercedes Avenue, there will be a few lights brightening up the Brock home this year plus an announcement at the garage door about the return of the holiday spectacle next year.

“We’ll probably put lights around the eaves of the house,” Renee said of the extent of their Christmas decoration this year.

Which was exactly the extent of the Christmas decorations that Renee asked her husband to put up during those many years when she yearned for some holiday spirit at their home. But her creative husband, as has been shown in the last 12 years, had bigger plans on his mind.