So you're heading out of downtown Vera Cruz on Main Road East and you go over the big hump where the railroad tracks cross the road and suddenly…….WOW!

The night is illuminated by a wild swirl of colors and styles all wonderfully jumbled together.

 I know I really like a decorated house when I can't stop taking photographs of it, partly because none of them seem to really do it justice. So go see this place for yourselves!

There are strings of blue, green, red, gold, even pink lights. Some burn steady, others twinkle. I even spotted  some of my personal favorites, those big old energy-sucking C-9s! (My wife prefers those much classier little white lights. Guess which lights are decorating my front yard!)

This residence, at 2973 Main Road East, is the home of 38-year-old Jerry Schwenk, Jr.

While Jerry uses mostly lights, he also has a skiing polar bear, a bunch of cute penguins, a small bear that looks like it was carved out of glacial ice, an angel and more. He even has over-sized ornaments hanging from a few of his trees.

The way Jerry decorates for Christmas, you might assume he has a whole passel of kids. But he says he's just a single guy.

"I honestly don't know why I do it. It takes a lot of time and every year I think I don't have the time, but I do it."

He spends well over 20 hours putting up hundreds of strings of lights "on every tree, every bush, every rock. It's a little overwhelming."

"People slow down or blow their horns when they see me putting them up," says Jerry.  He does that over several nights, often working until 2 a.m.

Incredibly, Jerry says he's slacked off on decorating the last couple of years. "I didn't even get the porch done this year," he said, explaining he usually wraps lighted  swag around the posts and puts lights on its roof.  He said he also did not put lights around windows and along the roof line on the side of his house, adding that would have taken many more hours and he's getting leery about climbing a ladder to do it.  "It's really a two-man job."

He's wondering if he can get an old bucket truck somewhere, like those used by utility companies.

Imagine finding one of those under your tree on Christmas morning!