Dana Melius, owner of Melius Manufacturing, LLC, put up a total of 10,500 lights to display his holiday spirit this season. (Photo/Sara Stadem) 

Sara Stadem | Editor 

If someone is in the Crooks area, they won’t get through town without noticing the light display at Melius Manufacturing, LLC which is located at the end of Main Street. 

With the help of his brother-in-law, owner Dana Melius got into the holiday spirit last season by decorating his business with Christmas lights. What Melius didn’t know at the time was how much it would grow the following season. 

“Last year was the first year I did it (decorated) because my brother-in-law kind of got me infected with the bug,” Melius stated. “Last year it was only about 6-7,000 lights and I did leave some lights up year-round.” Melius explained the American flag and the soldier saluting the flag remained up year-round and he plans to continue that tradition. 

In addition to those that were already up, Melius decided to grow the light display this year, now having a total of 10,500 lights on his business. 

Melius starts working on his light display creation right after Thanksgiving and it generally takes a few weeks to complete. With the help of his significant other, they brainstorm together to come up with the ideas. Once they come up with a plan, they put lights up for a few hours and then move on to the next design plan. 

“Honestly it probably only took us a couple days total of work. We do an hour or two here or there and then we think of another idea and do another hour or two. So, we spread it out over a few days,” stated Melius. “It’s sort of fun to watch it grow and see what we are doing as we add things daily as we come up with ideas and figure out how to do it.” 

Melius didn’t hesitate to explain that he would like to see how many lights he can add next year on top of the 10,500 he already has but that will depend on the availability of Christmas lights.

“About December 15 or 16, I went to get more lights for the parade of lights in town and everything was sold out. So, next year I’m going to have to shop earlier in order to add to this,” he stated. “If we can find the lights, I would like to double it (the number). I have never seen before where they completely sold out of lights before Christmas.”

Currently there are only three sides of the building that are decorated. Melius is hoping next year, if he can find the lights, they will be able to decorate all the way around the building. 

For anyone that hasn’t gotten to enjoy the light display yet, Melius will keep the lights up for a while after the first of the year before taking them down.