Everything is bigger in Texas, including holiday decorations. Millions of families across the state string up lights and inflatables in their yards for all to see — and can even achieve thousands in cash prizes or TikTok virality for extravagance.
While some yard displays are beloved community staples, others can spark the ire of the neighbors around them. From viral displays requiring police-escorted traffic to Grinch-themed signs pointing fingers at neighbors, here are some of the weirdest and most heartwarming Texas holiday display stories — by city.
Dallas
There’s a $6 million palatial mansion in Dallas’ quiet Preston Hollow neighborhood.
For the better part of the year, you wouldn’t notice anything unusual about the gargantuan home with a gray roof on Deloache Avenue, but the holidays see it lit up in a radiant, pulsing display of lights. TikTok videos of “The Viral House” gather millions of views, prompting people each year to line up in their cars, some driving for over an hour to see the decorations, NBC DFW previously reported.
But with great crowds comes great hassle. Onlookers stop their cars next to No Parking signs, and the city’s code compliance department has issued the home repeated notices for light glare and noise violations, The Dallas Morning News has reported. Homeowner Ryan De Vitis has been locked in an escalating war with his neighbors — and a city council member — over his right to cover every inch of his property in bright red bows and frolicking reindeer, Chron’s Gwen Howerton has reported.
One neighbor put up a large fence to block the light and protect their lawn from passersby, according to NBC DFW.
In January, Dallas City Council member Gay Donnell Willis told KDFW Fox 4 that the high volume of traffic led to calls for the Dallas Police Department to help control the crowds.
Willis said she requested a breakdown of how much dispatching officers to the neighborhood cost taxpayers last year, and she returned with a number of $25,375. She told KDFW Fox 4 that 71 officers were sent to the display over eight nights.
“Instead of being able to answer 911 calls, they were managing a Christmas lights traffic situation,” Willis told KDFW.
De Vitis, the owner of the home, did not offer a response to the cost of traffic enforcement, according to KDFW. (Nor did he reply to requests for comment from The Barbed Wire.)
“We observed a profound sense of community, with families gathering in holiday pajamas to take photos and share smiles. While some neighbors expressed differing views, we chose to focus on the positives,” De Vitis told the TV station.
This year, however, the De Vitises took a different approach. They changed their display, but not to be more modest. Instead, dozens of Grinch inflatables and figurines line the yard, in a not-so-subtle nod to the complainers. De Vitis called his neighbors, who’ve reportedly told the city the lights are keeping them up at night, the “the real-life Grinch,” per Chron.
“I’ve got folks who live almost a mile away who normally don’t pull down a shade at night but have to when this home is lit up to the extent that it is,” Willis, the city council member, said at a September meeting.
Around Halloween, The Dallas Morning News reported that the city cited the home for obstructing visibility at the intersection of a street and driveway.
Another home, in McKinney, was met with less division.
The house’s yard held 75 inflatables including bears, giant ornaments and nutcrackers, as well as over a million lights, KDFW reported in 2024. It was even featured on ABC’s “The Great Christmas Light Fight” show, homeowner Nasheel Joules told WFAA.
Joules called her display atop her stone and red brick home “the gift of light.”
Joules has an autoinflammatory disease that worsens in cold temperatures, which has led her to develop stage three heart failure, she told KDFW.
She and her husband, Mark Cornetti, initially began the yard decorations as a way for Joules to see a holiday display without having to go out in the cold, they told the news station. Now, they want the display to raise awareness for heart disease.
“This display is our way of reminding people of the reason for the season,” Jones said to KDFW.
Houston
In Pearland, the Corbello Family’s pulsing front yard reportedly features nearly 62,000 lights, a 22-foot Ferris Wheel, and a 26-foot “mega tree” this year.
In Spring Branch, one popular longtime holiday display brought hordes of visitors in previous years from all over the world — until it was cancelled over neighborhood drama in 2021.
That year, a yard sign sat in its place, FOX 26 Houston reported: “How the Grinches stole our Christmas display.”
“It’s Christmas we know, but we’re sorry to say some in the neighborhood have stole our display,” the sign reportedly read. “We think that the most likely reason of all may have been that their hearts were two sizes too small.”
The increasing traffic caused by the Johnson family’s display led to complaints from neighbors, according to FOX 26. One neighbor, Linda Voges, said that the traffic brought on by the display made it difficult for residents to get to their homes.
“On Christmas Day, there were 800 cars that came through,” Voges said to FOX 26. “It’s one way in and one way out.”
The neighborhood homeowners association told FOX 26 that the decision to not decorate the yard was made by the homeowners themselves.
“This decision was made solely by the homeowner and was not guided by the Spring Shadow Civic Association,” the association said to FOX 26.
This year, Houstonia magazine wrapped up the most festive, impressive displays in the area — from local zoos, parks, and city halls to botanic gardens.
San Antonio
There’s a plethora of Christmas displays in San Antonio, including glittering, larger-than-life nutcrackers in Terrell Hills, giant yard snowmen in Monte Vista, and a Converse home whose website lets you vote what Christmas song plays along with synchronized lights, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
San Antonio’s Westside neighborhood began a new tradition this year, lighting a community Christmas tree for its first-ever “Miracle on 37th Street.” Then, the tree was stolen a mere four days after it was lit along Old Highway 90, according to My San Antonio.
Yvonne Pena, who organized the event, told the outlet that the community tree was meant to be a bright spot in a rough time for the neighborhood.
“Everything has been so awful. I mean ICE is everywhere,” Pena said to My SA. “The event was supposed to be a highlight in our community to welcome people and give them a bit of hope.”
Although the stolen tree has not been recovered, Pena said the community has rallied despite the setback, and plans to replace it soon.
The Windcrest neighborhood, which locals know is ideal for viewing holiday displays, has had its own drama.
“Light Up,” the neighborhood’s annual Christmas display competition, brings out thousands of dollars worth of decorations, paid actors for front-yard performances, and plenty of neighborly competition.
According to Texas Monthly, the competition dates to 1959, and residents go all out to win bragging rights by placing in the competition’s various award categories. One couple, Scott Lee-Ross and his husband, told the magazine that after five years of gunning for first place in the Clark Griswold award category (named for the classic “National Lampoons” movie), their yard, complete with inflatable characters from the Disney movie Encanto, won the prize.
“Some people golf; some people garden; we buy Christmas lights,” Lee-Ross told Texas Monthly.
Other, less-friendly spats over decorations have gained national attention in recent years: In 2019, Claudia Simonis was pregnant. With a due date near Christmas, she and her husband decided to put up their decorations on Nov. 1 outside their San Antonio home, so her two young sons could enjoy the holiday spirit before her delivery, Simonis told NBC.
Days later, she received a letter from the neighborhood’s homeowner’s association.
“Please remove the snowman until closer to the holiday season,” the letter read, according to WOAI.
Simonis and her family refused to comply. According to WOAI, other families in the neighborhood also decorated early in solidarity.
While the Simonis family was chastised for their display, others won big. Two San Antonio families took home $50,000 in prize money as winners of ABC’s “The Great Christmas Light Fight” in 2021.
The Wilson couple in Windcrest told the San Antonio Express-News that they have been decorating together for 20 years. Their display of an elf smore’s bonfire, an express train, and a reindeer flight school took home the top prize over three other Texas families.
A few months later, the Hinojosa family of Boerne stole the show as well, claiming another $50,000 prize for their display, which included a light show set to music, a train that blows bubbles, and a ‘river’ of blue Christmas lights.
“When I think of all the people who helped us put it together, we were winners already,” Hinojosa said to the Express-News.
Austin
If you’re looking for dazzling displays with Austin’s signature weird twist, look no further than Round Rock, Cedar Park, and 37th Street, according to Do 512’s best holiday lights list.
One crowd-drawing display includes an eclectic collection of dressed up sock monkeys, KVUE reported in 2023.
Tracy Firsching’s house on 37th Street had monkeys dressed up as elves, the artist Prince, and soccer players. She even has a sock monkey nativity scene. Her neighbors, she said, embraced a similar unique holiday spirit — one house had a godzilla inflatable wrapped in lights.
Firsching told KVUE she moved to 37th Street in the 90’s, inspired by the quirky Christmas displays she had seen there.
“This street is one of the reminders of what the old Austin was like,” Firsching told the local news station.
Some displays, though, have even been shocking in their creativity.
In 2018, a pedestrian began to panic when he saw what appeared to be a man dangling from the roof while attempting to hang Christmas lights at one decorated house in Austin.
Chris Heerlein told KVUE that his family bought a dummy and dressed it up as Chevy Chase’s character in the film “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” imitating a scene when his ladder falls from underneath him as he tries to string lights on his roof.
However, the family’s doorbell camera caught Alfred Norwood Jr., who had been passing by, frantically trying to come to the dummy’s aid, attempting to bring him a ladder and calling 911 when the dummy did not respond to him.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God I hope he’s not dead, lemme call 9-1-1,’” Norwood told KVUE.
After an officer arrived, he told Norwood he had seen the display before and that the man hanging off the roof was fake.
The Heerlein family said they felt bad about Norwood’s panic, and told KVUE they reached out to him and gave him a gift card. They also decided to add a sign to their display saying not to call 911.
In another holiday mixup, the bright lights on one Georgetown home had some in the community wondering if they were seeing aliens, KXAN reported in 2023.
Chris Hartgraves’ holiday decorations include four beams of light that project into the sky above his roof. He said his display in total has about 13,000 lights, and caused some confusion on social media.
“People thought it was Elon Musk and his Starlink,” Hartgraves said to KXAN. “Some people said it was aliens coming down to land.”
Hartgraves said his decorations include animations, recorded voices, and a programmed light show that runs every 15 minutes.
“I grew up in apartments, so I’d never had a house to decorate for Christmas,” Hartgraves said to KXAN. “I didn’t want the same experience for my kids growing up.”