The Telfer home, near the intersection of Lohr and Textile, has been wowing area residents with an elaborate holiday light display each year for more than a decade.

Pat Kabat | Contributor

Editor's Note: The Telfer home is featured on the AnnArbor.com Holiday Lights Map, along with many many other wonderful light displays around town.

Have you ever wondered as you approached the intersection of Lohr and Textile at Christmas time, how one house could look so beautiful?

Maybe you discovered this scene years ago and have purposely driven your family by ever since. Maybe you saw a picture of it and went to check it out. Or, best yet, maybe you happened to be driving between Saline and Ann Arbor and it appeared unexpectedly — from hundreds of yards away, it seemed to rise from the earth as you reached the top of a hill!

As you came closer, the blaze of light was almost blinding, but you could start to pick out specific decorations. When you arrived at the intersection, you had no choice but to pull over to take it all in and to appreciate the creative and amazing details: The snowmen, angels, reindeer and Christmas trees filled your vision and you became transported to a true winter wonderland!

After the initial shock to your senses, you start to question: Who creates this spectacle? How? Why? At what cost? How long does it take? Do they have help? Each year it seems to grow!

I took these questions to Don Telfer, the resident and architect, and learned that he and his wife, Elizabeth, and their two sons and daughter moved from Saline in 1994 to their Pittsfield Township home in Mallard Cove. They started decorating by lighting the evergreen tree in front (which was much smaller then!) and lining the fence along Textile. Each year, Don outlined the house a little more and then added lit tree sculptures on the side of the house and in front.

Since then, he has added, among other things, a train, numerous inflated characters, reindeer on the garage roof, a lit American flag on the house roof, carolers, musical trees, a dog sled, decorated arches in the driveway and, new this year, a precarious Santa climbing into the chimney and a 17-foot-high hot air balloon with Santa riding in the basket.

A total of 25,000 lights are installed; 25 to 35 strings of 100 lights are replaced each year; one or two lawn ornaments are replaced or added each year. I asked about the cost… the Telfers agree that this is Don’s project, and he’s the one who opens and pays the November and December electric bill, so only he knows!

Don starts thinking about new ideas or additions in October; at Halloween, a Christmas character along the fence holds a sign showing the countdown of days until Christmas; the decorations come down from the garage attic and start to enhance the outdoor landscape. There's no professional crew — Don’s children, who are away or in college, help when they’re home, and Brett Bourne, his friend and a volunteer fireman, gets up on the roof to do the installations there.

By Thanksgiving, any task that isn’t completed will get assistance from the family members who come in from Canada for the holiday. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the timer goes on at 5 p.m., the kitchen lights dim and the new puppy, Hank, starts barking at the front yard as the inflated characters come to life and the remarkable display emerges! It will delight passersby until 11 p.m. each night until it goes dark on New Year’s Day.

Don doesn’t let the challenges of non-working lights or the occasional power outage frustrate him. And he doesn’t mind the constant stream of cars driving past the house every night — that lets him know that his efforts are appreciated and enjoyed by many.

There have been articles written and pictures taken; Chuck Gaidica has visited and taken pictures for his Holiday Lights segment on Channel 4 News. Don’s not interested in publicity or contests or being the Chevy Chase of Pittsfield Township, but he does value, nonetheless, the many ways people show their pleasure. Yes, people ring the doorbell to say thank you and cards and small gifts are delivered. A kind, elderly woman from a nearby neighborhood comes in person with a plate of cookies and a card, saying that she cherishes looking at a beautiful celebration of Christ’s birthday.

It is reactions like those that gratify and motivate Don. He has no plans to ever cut back — when it stops being fun, he’ll stop doing it. For now, it’s his ongoing passion, and we are the fortunate recipients of his labor of love. I thanked Don, in advance, on your behalf, for providing us with such a breathtakingly beautiful holiday scene around town!

If there’s anything you’ve “scene” around town and wondered about, let me know and I’ll try to check it out….

Pat Kabat is a longtime resident of Ann Arbor. Recently retired, she now enjoys more time with family and grandchildren. She also volunteers as a tutor with Washtenaw Literacy and as an usher at U-M Productions and the Michigan Theater. Pat hopes to use her curiosity of scenes around town to investigate and share with the community.  Read previous Scene Around Town articles here.