- November 23, 2024
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Long before creating elaborate light displays for his business Festive Lighting Pros, Matt Nemeth’s only client was his mother Dolly.
As a teenager, Nemeth would pick up odd jobs around their Johnstown, Pennsylvania neighborhood. He’d shovel snow or take ashes out of furnaces, and if one of his mother’s Christmas bulbs burned out, he’d replace it.
“Matthew was a young guy, and he had lots of ideas,” Dolly Nemeth said. “He took his spending money, and he bought decorations for the house.”
Then, Nemeth could only afford a string of lights at a time. Now that he owns his own lighting business, his mother’s annual displays keep getting bigger, better and brighter.
He still travels from Lakewood Ranch to Pennsylvania these days to work on his mom's home. Despite the hours spent outside in the cold temperatures, he hopes to continue the tradition for another 10 years.
Every year, the Nemeth family, about 40 of them, gather the night after Thanksgiving at his mom's home for a light-up party. But Dolly Nemeth’s displays attract more than just family to her home. Tour buses drive by, too.
“The firetrucks and Santa Claus went by beeping the horn. It’s really something. People come by and take pictures, and it’s entertaining for me because I’m going to be 90,” Dolly Nemeth said. “I’m being entertained inside of my home.”
Matt Nemeth's neighbors along Sweetflag Drive here in Riverwalk Grove can say the same. Nemeth put up a Christmas tree that towers 18 feet over his driveway, which has created a regular flow of traffic through the neighborhood.
Lake Vista residents Kathy and Jeff Groob saw the tree from Lakewood Ranch Boulevard. They’ve driven by several times to check the progress or show friends and family.
“They can see it from the space station,” Jeff Groob said. “I’ll bring my sunglasses next time.”
With a crew of seven and an aerial lift machine, it still takes about a week to set up the display, and recent winds slowed them down.
It’s not as simple as just hanging lights. There are speakers on the roof to play Christmas music, and all the lights are set to a remote that controls the colors and makes them either twinkle or fade. Nemeth’s got all the technology, but he still loves the nostalgia of a classic C-9 bulb.
“The size of a C-9 bulb is what we had when we were kids when our parents would screw in the bulbs,” Nemeth said. “They were glass. Now, they’re plastic and faceted. They’re cut in a diamond pattern, so that when the light comes out, it shines like a prism.”
He estimates that he’s got 70 to 80 sets on his Oak tree alone. The bulbs also line the palm trees, the roof and the shrub beds.
While he admits his setup, which also includes six trees inside his home, is unrealistic for the average homeowner, his company does offer more affordable packages around $1,500. Some of his bigger residential clients have spent upwards of $25,000.
Nemeth’s home is in Riverwalk Grove at 11516 Sweetflag Drive, but the rest of East County is shining a little brighter this time of the year, too.
