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It's finally here: the winner of "Brandon's Battle of the Bulbs" is the Buxton family from Ankeny.
"We've got a display of Christmas LED lights and we've got about 8,000 LEDs on the house and it's synchronized to music," said Craig Buxton.
The focal point of the Buxtons' impressive display is the "mega tree".
"It's pretty big, you can put a lot of cool graphics on it," Craig said. "And it looks pretty neat when it's all lit up."
The Buxtons spend months preparing for the most wonderful time of the year, although the exact amount of time varies year-to-year.
"You can spend about as long as you want to spend on it," Craig said. "But I think last year, we started around April, starting to get ready with building some of the props and starting to do this some of the sequencing to get ready."
While putting together the display is a lot of work, Craig says the family is only on an upward trend.
"We've been adding things every year to it. So at the moment, everybody seems to enjoy it. We like doing it. So we keep on it," he said. "Yeah, it's really fun to see cars drive by and stop and look. And they all send us messages on Facebook and say, 'Oh, it's so great to see.' And we really love the music and we've got a great neighborhood that always also enjoys it."
Grant Buxton, one of Craig's kids, also gets in on the fun.
"We really like to put [the lights] up and we really like to have fun having a show," he said. "And every year we try to get better and better and it's awesome."
If you would like to view the Buxtons display, visit SE Hillside Drive in Ankeny.
"We're just enjoying the fact that somebody out there could see it and come and enjoy the lights," Craig said.
Want to see more holiday lights? Here are the other finalists in Brandon's Battle of the Bulbs contest:
- Darcie Lewis: Belle Mar Drive, West Des Moines
- Mandi Bright: W 109th Street S, Prairie City
- Matt Pullen: SW Snyder Blvd, Ankeny