Palatine man’s display wins Daily Herald holiday lights contest: How it started, how it helps others
Michael Murphy is the 2021 Daily Herald Holiday Lights Grand Prize award winner for the display outside his family’s home at 722 Pompano Lane in Palatine. Every year people leave decorations on his porch after Christmas that he uses the next year. – John Starks | Staff Photographer
Every year, Michael Murphy’s neighbors ask him what he plans to do differently for his holiday lights extravaganza.
“It’s kind of a challenge, because I have to get as creative as I can and keep it somehow fresh,” he said.
This year, Murphy, who lives at 722 Pompano Lane in Palatine, decided to forgo decorating his backyard and threw all he had into the front.
He painstakingly wrapped the second story of the house with thousands of multicolored lights, meticulously lined the roof with additional rows of lights, and placed more than a dozen snowmen, Santas, Christmas trees, candy canes, penguins, reindeer and more on the lawn.
He also set lights on bushes and trees, the latter requiring some jiggering.
“I run the wire from the basketball hoop up to one tree to the next and to the next, so people don’t trip on cords.”
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