Twenty-five years ago, Kris Marshall of Iowa draped a strand of Christmas lights across his pickup truck. Now, eight incarnations later, the Christmas Truck has 3,000lights. Matt Hardigree writes for Jalopnik:

It’s amazingly nontechnical, it’s literally just lights taped to a truck. According to Marshall “It’s not very scientific, it’s a hideous site in the daylight, there’s black tape and wires in the daytime.” But at night it’s amazing. Marshall has used eight trucks and added dozens of strand since, though it’s always a 2WD Chevy/GMC with a regular cab and eight-foot truck bed “the way a truck ought to look.”

By his own estimate there are 50-to-70 strings with a mixture of 50 and 100 lights each, making a conservative estimate of 3,000 lights. There are no LEDs, just the cheap $0.89 strings, though he’d like to add some to take pressure off the taxed generator. (more…)

One of the largest homes in Boston with 250,000 lights. Homeowner Luberto hopes the lights will serve as a reminder to some 47,000 people who drive by his home each day that Christmas should be celebrated in style. Photo Paul Keleher

While the earliest origins of celebratory lighting during winter festivals predate Christianity, it’s the European, and later North American partly secularized traditions associated with Christmas which are now commonly recognized and enjoyed as festive Christmas Lights. (more…)