20 Years And Counting For Jaw-Dropping Tewksbury Light Display

TEWKSBURY, MA -- Just how big of a deal are the Christmas lights on Rockvale Road in Tewksbury? On a drizzly Monday night there were no fewer than a dozen cars on the street at any given moment. The light displays, which cover multiple houses on the dead-end cul-de-sac off of Shawsheen Street, have gotten a little bit bigger in each of the 20 or so years neighbors have been displaying them. And while a lot of towns have a house or street that get mentioned as the place to go to see holiday lights, few have the reputation of Rockvale Road, which consistently makes it on lists of the five best places to see holiday lights in Greater Boston, Massachusetts and New England.

While the displays aren't in competition with one another -- neighbors band together to collect donations from visitors for local charities -- the one house that shines a little brighter than the rest belongs to the Dascoli family, who have been decorating their home for more than 20 years. According to a 2011 article, there were more than 100,000 individual lights in the display; we didn't count when we visited on Monday night, but we're guessing it's even bigger this year than it was six years ago.

This year the Dascolis are collecting for the Tewksbury Food Pantry. Other charities the neighbors have supported include the Tewksbury Senior Center and Tewksbury Recreation. In a typical year, the neighborhood collects about $10,000 in donations.

The lights are on display from the day after Thanksgiving until New Year's Eve. And since you're probably wondering, the Dascoli's estimated their electric bill to be about $1,000 for the month when they were asked in 2011. Setting up the lights starts right after Halloween and concludes on Thanksgiving morning, when they get help from a local service and its bucket truck.

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Photos by Dave Copeland.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).