By Andy Furman
NKyTribune reporter
Do not worry – it is not too late.
You have got until January 2nd to view the greatest Christmas light show in the tri-state.
At least Tom Schreiber thinks it is the greatest.
“I’ve been here 47 years,” the 82-year-old Schreiber told the Northern Kentucky Tribune. “I built this house.”
Here is 8344 Pleasant Valley Road in Florence, and it is no wonder it was built by Tom Schreiber – the Godfather of Schreiber Custom Homes.
“It took about a year-and-a-half to build our home,” he continued, “because I was working on other projects.”
But that light display – how did it get started?
“I always had lights on our house,” he recalled, “but about 26 years ago I bought a little metal sleigh.”
But electric Christmas lights are nothing new. They were introduced with electrification, beginning in the 1880s. The illuminated Christmas tree became established in the UK during Queen Victoria’s reign, and through emigration spread to North America and Australia.
Then came Tom Schreiber and the big stuff.
“The first thing was a tiny crib, then some more sleighs,” he remembered, “I built them all.”
Why wouldn’t he – that’s what Tom Schreiber does – builds things.
“I just started added sleighs and lights,” he said. “Having grandkids, well, I thought they’d like it; and one thing led to another.”
The Schreiber grandkids were not the only ones who liked the spectacle on Pleasant Valley Road. “When the road was a two-laner,” Schreiber said, “we sure had some traffic back-ups. People would stop, stare, and take photos.”
They still do. “They sometimes even come in our driveway,” he said.
With the help of his son-in-law, Schreiber says he built a snow mountain. “He has some real imagination,” Schreiber said.
The Schreiber Light Project gets started at the end of October, and the switch goes on Thanksgiving.
“I do have a helper these days,” Schreiber admits.
But is it the best in the Tri-state?
“I’ll say this, to me we don’t have any balloons; no fake stuff. What we do have is a crib, a church, a toy house, a snow mountain, and tons – tons of lights.
“We used to have a party to turn on the lights,” he said.
And they do have a Santa Claus – it’s an annual event. This year it was on the 7th of December.
“We had close to 100 kids show up,” Schreiber said. “Each of them got gifts from the Candy Gallery – we’ve been doing the Santa Claus Day for the past 12 years.”
Now for the hard part – taking it all down.
“That takes a couple of days. We will store the toy house and snow mountain at Lonker Construction and put them on a trailer toy take them there.”
And there is more.
“We paint the items yearly. In fact, we had to fix the cribs this year. We might have to fix the toy house next year,” he said.
Christmas lights – also known as fairy lights, festive lights, or string lights – are lights often used for decoration in celebration of Christmas, often on display throughout the Christmas season including Advent and Christmastide. The custom goes back to when Christmas trees were decorated with candles, which symbolized Christ being the light of the world.
But they were nothing compared to the Schreiber display.
You gotta wonder what that electic bill must be?