Holiday lights galore: These SW FL Santas bring the cheer. 'I've always loved Christmas.'
Ron Spering is 72 years old. But every Christmas season, he gets to feel like a kid again.
How does he do it? It just takes two Disney castles, a hand-made sleigh and about 100,000 holiday lights.
Spering's been decorating his Marco Island home for about four decades now. The elaborate display has even been featured on the TV news.
"It's been a passion from the start," Spering says. "I've always loved Christmas.
"And you know what, it's a neat way for part of me to stay 6 years old, and nobody minds. They don't think I'm TOO crazy (laughs)."
The Spering house is just one of many decorated homes and businesses featured in the Naples Daily News's interactive holiday lights map.
To see the map online, go to naplesnews.com/holidaymap2023.
The map shows holiday displays in Naples, Marco Island, Bonita Springs and the rest of Southwest Florida. You can use it for a self-guided tour of the region's best and brightest displays.
If you are reading this story in print, you can see a list of addresses of all the displays inside the Tuesday, Dec. 12 edition of the Naples Daily News.
Christmas spirit returns to this Naples home
Farther north in Golden Gates Estates, Annette Kniola brings her own version of the Christmas spirit to Southwest Florida.
She's decorated her 1331 22nd Ave. N.E. house to look like a gingerbread house: Colorful lights outlining the one-story home, winding around the 20-foot-tall Norfolk pine tree up front and streaming across her fence and gate. An oversized inflatable Grinch scowls on the roof, and a 6-foot-tall inflatable snowman greets visitors in the front yard.
Kniola estimates there are about 100,000 lights in all, but she admits that might be a little off. Her kids told her "no way."
"I don't even know," Kniola says. "I'm tempted to say 50,000, just to be safe. But it's a lot."
Kniola says she's been doing this for 15 years. And even though she's in the process of moving, she went ahead and did it again this year.
"I thought I was gonna do less this year," Kniola says. "But you just can't stop once you start, you know?"
Kniola often gets visitors who drive by to see the light display. But she gets joy out of it, too.
"I love it," she says. "It gives me spirit. It gives the kids spirit."
That's why her kids turn on the lights every night before she comes home from work.
"It's just a feelgood thing to come home to," she says. "The spirit comes back. I have a good spirit altogether, but it just makes it merrier."
Alive and spreading holiday cheer on Marco Island
Back on Marco Island, the Spering family feels the same way about their holiday light display.
Spering started decorating their home soon after he and his wife, Pam, got married 46 years ago, he says. But he wasn't sure if he'd be able to do it at all this year.
He wasn't even sure he'd be alive.
Spering got in a bad car accident on Interstate-75 in March, he says. And for a few weeks, doctors weren't sure he'd survive.
Nine months later, he's alive but still recovering. Luckily, he has terrific neighbors. They stepped up to help him build the display this year at 1264 Whiteheart Ave.
"I'm back in business," Spering says. "And with a lot of help from the neighbors, I'm all set up."
This year's display includes about 100,000 lights – mostly red and green – a 12-foot-tall Christmas tree, a 7-foot-tall fiberglass Rudolph, an oversized Christmas ball ornament and lots of things Spering built himself from wood: a manger scene, a Disney castle with Mickey and Minnie, a "Frozen" castle with sisters Anna and Elsa, and a 12-foot locomotive.
There's even a hand-made, horse-drawn sleigh with a life-sized fiberglass horse. Again, Spering built that himself.
It's something he started doing when he and his wife lived in Pennsylvania near Amish country.
"As a side hobby, I restore horse-drawn sleighs," he says. "How many people in Florida can say THAT?"
In keeping with the Christmas spirit, the holiday display is about more than just the beautiful lights. It’s also about giving.
For three years, they've been collecting money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. People just drop the money in a donation box.
"So far, we're over $50,000," Spering says. "People have been great about it."
How to be a part of the holiday lights map
Do you have an awesome holiday display of your own? Then you can be in the map, too.
Go online and fill out a short form that includes your address, the number of lights in your display and a short description. It's free.
To add your holiday light display, go to naplesnews.com/holidaylights. The displays can be for businesses, homes or venues.
The Naples Daily News holiday lights map will be updated online throughout the holiday season.
Interactive map
Use your phone's camera to scan this QR code to go to our interactive map of holiday lights displays or go to naplesnews.com/holidaymap2023.
— Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. To reach him, call 239-335-0368 (for tickets to shows, call the venue) or email him atcrunnells@gannett.com. Follow or message him on social media: Facebook (facebook.com/charles.runnells.7), X (formerly Twitter) (@charlesrunnells), Threads (@crunnells1) and Instagram (@crunnells1).
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Christmas lights galore: 2 fun Naples, Marco Island holiday displays
