Sarasota couple plugs into holiday spirit

There are holiday decorations and then there is the Hipps house on the corner of Wisteria Street and East Avenue.

It’s a modest house until Madison Hipps flips the switch on his meticulously arranged rows of multicolored bulbs. They run vertically along the front, and white and blue lights frame the windows and cover the roof, frosting the entire facade.

“All the kids in the neighborhood — they can’t wait until our lights go up,” said his wife, Christine.

They give the home an imposing presence, but it’s an effect that requires patience and dedication on behalf of Madison Hipps.

He begins his preparations in September, stringing lights along the front of the house first — a chore that requires more than 900 twist ties fixed to industrial staples. There is no handbook for  Hipps’ routine. It’s a technique borne of repetition.

Madison Hipps, 75, doesn’t remember exactly when his dedication to holiday decorations began, but it’s been long enough that stories of his efforts have become part of family lore.

He can’t help but laugh when he remembers bringing his 4-year-old grandson, now in college, onto the roof.

“I tied my grandson to the chimney so he wouldn’t fall off,” he said. “He helped me.”

Madison Hipps’ routine has become rite of passage. His family and neighbors hold each detail sacred.

The lights turn on Thanksgiving Day — marking his official  beginning of the holiday season.

For the Hipps, the lights provide a little bit of magic. For some, the holidays are a period of drudgery, of obligatory dinners and department store lines. But not on the corner of East Avenue and Wisteria Street.

“To see the kids is what it’s all about,” Madison Hipps said.

He sometimes lets the children in the neighborhood turn on the display. Their expressions remind him that even in the midst the holiday’s obligations, there is still some magic.

“He just does it because he loves to see it and he loves for people to see it,” Christine Hipps said.