Beverly 40K Holiday Light Display Brightens Spirits On North Shore

BEVERLY, MA — When Henry Witham and his family moved to McKay Street in Beverly six years ago they thought it would be a fun thing to decorate their new home for the holidays.

Witham bought a couple of items that year. He said his wife chipped in a couple more, and his oldest daughter added to the collection as well. The next year, the display got a bit more festive, and then each year even more cheer was added to the yard, roof and walls of the house as The Grinch, Santa and Jack Skellington, among others, joined the inflatable crew along with lighted reindeer, penguins and flamingos.

"It's something we enjoy doing together so we decided to have fun with it," Witham told Patch on Monday. "Then a few years ago we decided that if we're doing it we might as well make it mean something."

So, four years ago, Witham and his family began soliciting donations for charity each Christmas season with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots as the cause of choice for the past three years. Witham said this year's display at 149 McKay Street will include more than 40,000 lights — about 10,000 more than last year — and will be bigger and better than ever.

Witham said he starts decorating the walls and roof while the weather is good in September and October and then he fills in the yard starting at the start of November.

"We get whatever Halloween stuff there is out of there and then go crazy," he said. "The archway goes up on Nov. 1 and everything is built around that.

"It's craziness."

This will be the second year the family will conduct a raffle to support Toys for Tots as well, with several North Shore businesses donating items that range from restaurant gift cards to wine bottles to grocery gift cards to Amazon gift cards donated by Axcelis Technologies of Beverly, where Witham is an employee.

Witham also acts as the resident Santa Claus waving to children and entertaining them from the display — where this year he will hand out 600 candy canes courtesy of Axcelis.

While the light display stays up through New Year's Day, the Toys for Tots fundraiser runs from Thanksgiving night through Sunday morning of Thanksgiving weekend. Tickets are $5 each, or five for $20, with the drawing live-streamed on the Beverly Christmas light house Facebook page here, along with more information on the raffle prizes and how to purchase tickets for those who cannot make it to the house in person.

Raffle winners will be posted online.

"Last year we collected over $5,000 worth of toys between direct donations and what was purchased with raffle proceeds," Witham said. "We hope to tie or break that this year."

The house lights up at 4:30 each afternoon with Santa on the scene handing out candy cane treats until 8 each night while they last.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza)