Lake Wylie neighbor brightening season with yard display (+ video)

Drivers heading south on Highway 274 into Lake Wylie are seeing a bright spot just off the roadway.

Annette and Tim Cooper have transformed the front yard of their home on 5 1/2 acres on Harper-Davis Road into a winter wonderland with visions of candy canes, lighted trees flashing to music, a puppy pound, snowmen and more. Passersby can even catch a wave from Santa seen moving inside the left windows of the house.

Annette Cooper said the display has slowly grown through the years with this being the largest.

“This is such a huge yard if you stick something out there, it just looks out of place,” she said, adding she was continuing to add more decorations through last week. “It’s like an obsession.”

The Coopers take drives through Lake Wylie neighborhoods, she said, to enjoy their neighbors’ lights and get ideas. She then goes home and searches the Internet for the pieces she’d like to add to her display.

“I just think it’s pretty at night,” she said. “It really pops when you’re coming down the highway.”

The Coopers also make their own yard decorations, for example, a lighted “Believe” sign. Husband Tim cut it out, she sanded and primed it, and her niece painted it. She also took tomato cages and wrapped lights around them to create trees.

This year, the Coopers switched to LED lights, hoping to alleviate the additional $200 on their electric bill last year and so they could use more lights.

“I’m noticing more people coming by and stopping,” she said. “If I’m out, people stop and say something.”

Her sister, Melissa Hines, who lives across the street has something to say, too. She decorated her yard with one brightly lit sign pointing to the Coopers’ yard: “Ditto.”

This story was originally published December 11, 2015 at 12:54 PM with the headline "Lake Wylie neighbor brightening season with yard display (+ video)."