What it takes to put on some of McHenry County’s most elaborate home holiday light displays

Every year, Crystal Lake residents Jacci and Dan Click pull out a 17-foot-tall Santa to put on their front lawn along with dozens of other colorful and bright holiday decorations. They have been putting on spectacular displays for more than 20 years, Jacci Click said.

She said they “probably get, on average, a couple of hundred cars a night” that come to see their home display. “It’s a little crazy,” she said.

As it’s grown, the Clicks decided to also set up food drives to help local organizations during the season. In years past, the Clicks have collected food for Family Health Partnership Clinic. Now, they have their drive connected to Jacci’s nonprofit organization, Fisher Outreach Group Adopt-A-Grandparent, which brings assistance to seniors in need. The Clicks will have a donation bin outside their home to collect nonperishable foods and everyday items such as dish soap, toilet paper and paper towels. Monetary donations also can be made at the Fisher Outreach Group website, Fisheroutreachgroup.com.

“With most of the seniors that we work with ... a lot of them can’t even get out to the food pantry,” she said.

The display and drive, located at 401 W. Woodstock St., Crystal Lake, is called “Clickmas in Crystal Lake” as a play on their last name. Thousands of lights shine on the 17-foot-tall Santa, a sleigh and all the reindeer, including Rudolph, as well as a host of other holiday characters. The Clicks plan to keep the lights on at their home from 5 to 11 p.m. Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve.

“We love everybody in the community that comes out and enjoys the lights, and if we’re able to collect some food to help the people that need help, that’s just an added bonus,” Jacci said.

It’s become a tradition for visitors to bring their children and take a photo next to the giant Santa every year to see how much their kids have grown, she said. This year, the family will host a night of pictures with the Grinch and a free hot cocoa bar, but Jacci still is planning what day it will be. Updates will be posted on the Facebook page bit.ly/ClickmasinCrystalLake.

Those thousands of lights can add up. Last year, the Clicks’ electric bill was about $1,300 a month during their display. They are hoping this year will be more efficient, as they switched to LED lights.

As for where that 17-foot-tall Santa goes for the remainder of the year, Jacci keeps the secrets magical.

“He goes back up to the North Pole,” she said.

Plenty of other households across McHenry County have the same idea, bringing many options to sightseers in the area, including Lake in the Hills, McHenry, Wonder Lake, Woodstock and Huntley. Many include charitable tie-ins and come with requests that visitors be respectful of the neighbors.

In McHenry, Amy and Brad Tomasheski also turned on their holiday display the evening of Thanksgiving. The Tomasheskis have been putting on the display for many years, both at previous homes they’ve lived in and their current residence, except for 2019, when Brad Tomasheski, an Army reservist, was deployed.

Originally, the light show got turned on the day after Thanksgiving, but the family moved that to Thanksgiving after some of the neighbors said they were hosting out-of-town guests for the holiday who otherwise might not get a chance to see the lights.

People can stop by the light display at 206 Tralee Lane in the evenings between now and the new year, with the show running from 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 5 to 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Once people arrive, there’s a sign or two around the display telling them to turn to 87.9 FM. The radio plays music that syncs up with the light show. The show runs for about 45 minutes, Brad Tomasheski said.

Contrary to popular belief, the Tomasheskis’ electric bill is not very expensive during the holidays – maybe about $15 to $20 higher than normal. Brad Tomasheski said it was a gradual conversion to LED, but there’s still a couple incandescent lights in the display.

He also puts up decorations during Halloween, which he said takes about three weeks to do. After Halloween, he starts decorating for Christmas, which usually takes until Thanksgiving, but many of the Halloween decorations can be repurposed for Christmas, he said.

The Tomasheskis also ask people coming to the light show to bring canned goods and other nonperishable items to donate. The donations go to the FISH of McHenry food pantry and Veterans Path to Hope in Crystal Lake. Brad Tomasheski said he likes to give back to other veterans.

He said he talks about the donations during the first sequence of the show, and there’s a bin on the sidewalk to the right of the driveway for people to put their donations. There’s also a lighted sign directing people to the bin. He estimated about 90% of donations are canned goods and 10% are other nonperishables. He said on a good Friday or Saturday, he might have to go out mid-show to empty the bin.

Brad Tomasheski said he gets asked where the decorations go the rest of the year.

“I keep everything on-site,” he said, noting it gets stored in the crawlspace.

Opening day also was a success Thursday, and Brad Tomasheski said everything went off without a hitch.

“There were cars every time I looked outside,” he said.

A list of more than 30 homes across the county can be found on Naturally McHenry County’s website by going to naturallymchenrycounty.com/events and clicking on the “Christmas and holiday events” under the events tab.

Would you like to share a photo of your home holiday lights display? You can upload your photo here, and please fill out the form that’s included to give us permission to publish it. You must include a phone number (not for publication) and the town in which you live, and please don’t show your house number in the photo.