SOUTH HADLEY — In the weeks leading up to Christmas, 19 West Summit St. in South Hadley is transformed into a holiday destination as people flock to see an elaborate Christmas display composed of 50,000 lights, projection images and synchronized music.
For the last 20 years, John Breen’s Christmas display has drawn crowds — first in Springfield, then in South Hadley, where Breen has lived for the past decade. But his affinity for Christmas decorations traces back to his childhood, when his mother would let him decorate the outside of the house.
“Now I guess you can say it’s just carried on,” Breen said. “I just liked it, everybody else liked it, and when people said how much they enjoyed it, that’s what got me going. If you see the smile on just one child’s face, you know you’re doing a good thing.”
Breen, a retired postal worker, begins setting up the light display the day after Halloween and typically leaves it up until three days after Christmas, depending on the weather. Taking down the lights is the easier part, he said, but he still requires about three days just to remove the bulk of them. The array of lights is a product of years of shopping for new additions, often purchased at after-the-holidays closeout sales.
Breen attributes the longstanding success of the display to the synchronization effect between music, lights and images on his 9 x 40 projection screen, as well as the variety of sequences. Viewers can tune into 89.5 FM to listen from their cars as the screen shows 12 different musical sequences, including a “Frozen” clip paired with the movie’s best-known song, “Let It Go.” These effects tend to appeal to people of all ages, he said, and visitors will sometimes return to see sequences that they didn’t catch during their first visit.
“There’s certain displays that even I like to go watch, but you go there, you watch it for five minutes, and you’re done,” Breen said. “And are you likely to actually go back that season? Probably not.
“Here, you can stay for 10 minutes to catch a couple of songs,” he continued. “You leave, you come back another time and hear a couple more. There’s so much to actually see that people want to keep coming back.”
Breen received his most famous visitor about 12 years ago in Springfield, when legendary blues musician B.B. King’s tour bus stopped by to view the display en route to a concert in New York. Breen received a call from King the next day saying how much he’d enjoyed the lights, he said.
As for Breen’s neighbors, he said that most have been supportive of his light display, with the owner of an adjacent property allowing him to extend the light display into his yard. One set of neighbors just moved in a few months ago, and Breen had a conversation with them before they bought the house to alert them of what a spectacle the location becomes during the holiday season. At times, a line of cars can be seen outside Breen’s home at night as viewers take in the extravaganza.
It’s impossible to keep track of just how many people come to see the lights each year, but Breen estimates that the house can “probably get 100 people here in a night, easy,” and draws “definitely in the thousands” during its yearly run. Last year, the South Hadley Police Department had to send cruisers to block off part of the road into a one-way street and direct traffic.
There is no charge to view the lights, but a red mailbox outside of the house invites viewers to make cash donations to the Neighbors Helping Neighbors Food Pantry in South Hadley. Breen began collecting the donations after people started offering him money for putting up the light display, he said. When he turned down the payments for himself, people suggested he collect the money for charity. Donations have amounted to more than $2,000 to the food pantry for the last two years, according to Breen.
At the moment, Breen has no timeline for how long the holiday tradition will continue.
“My children are in high school, so who knows what’s going to happen once they’re out of high school,” Breen said. “I would imagine no matter what, the lights will probably be at least three to four more years, and then I would decide after that.”
But Breen does not anticipate that the public’s demand for the lights will stop anytime soon.
“Most people, they don’t want to see it stop, and it’s funny how a lot of people found us,” he added. “When I moved out of Springfield, they found us here. People do follow.”
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.