PHOTOS: Wexford wows with winter wonderland

HURON — Each year, they deliver supreme North Pole spirit to their small-town North Coast neighborhood. Three Huron residents, neighbors and longtime friends — Wayne Foster, Mike Seikel and Doug Studer — eagerly await the holiday season. It's when they can, quite literally, go all-out with adorning their home exteriors and front/side yards with thousands of Christmas lights. "To us, this is a brotherhood," said Seikel, a local realtor, who moved to this neighborhood nearly 20 years ago after putting forth similar efforts with his former home in Fremont. "We all help each other out, and we've been doing it for a long time. All three men reside within the Wexford West neighborhood, accessible by entering Wexford Drive off Cleveland Road West in Huron. While many nearby homes also feature illuminated light displays, the houses of these three men truly stand out from all others: • Studer lives on Winthrop Court near a cul-de-sac where, smack-dab there, a 48-foot-tall Colorado blue spruce tree towers above the neighborhood and is visible from U.S. 6, when it becomes a highway, near Rye Beach Road. The larger-than-life Christmas blue spruce, appropriately covered in blue lights, serves as the neighborhood's centerpiece Christmastime attraction. "This year, we added another 3,000 lights and, they are much brighter than they've ever been," said Studer, who retired after working for BMW's manufacturer. "Hart's Tree Serve and AJ Hart really help us out with that." Studer also decorated his house with a flashy display of vibrant lights, which includes "reindeer" out front and wreaths hung up high on his home. "I built my house here in 1990 and moved into it in 1991 and have decorated every year since," Studer said. • Kitty-corner from Studer lives Foster and Seikel whose houses straddle a bend: Foster on Salem Drive and Seikel on Westport Boulevard. While each man separately dresses up his individual property with lights, figurines, faux trees, classic characters and more, they're collectively linked: They've installed festively lit-up 8-foot-tall tinsel-lined arches or gateways along the bending sidewalks. The arches invite people into this elaborate ornamentation, truly a Hallmark-esque winter wonderland all contained in a single residential district. "It's all about the spirit of Christmas and putting smiles on little kids' faces," Seikel said. "On the weekends even, we give out candy canes." Added Foster, who moved into the neighborhood in 1993 and previously owned Foster Funeral Home & Crematory: "We just love doing it." Seikel, after attending a convention in Florida on Christmas lights a few years back, even learned how to sync up a light show from his property to classic holiday music emanating from a radio broadcast. In fact, from 5 p.m. to midnight daily throughout the holiday season, listeners can tune into 97.1 FM and head into the neighborhood for music timed up with his illumination display. The broadcast lasts for about 25 minutes before repeating. The trio truly spared no expense to welcome in neighbors, other locals and visitors. In recent times, however, not many outsiders have ventured inside their neighborhood during the holiday season. "It's sad to say, though, that traffic has really gone down in the last few years," Seikel said. "We are tucked back far away, and a lot of people really don't know about us. We really do it for the people." All three hope the brightly lit Colorado blue spruce sparks curiosity from commuters and entices people into their neighborhood. "We welcome anyone here," said Studer, adding how the lights should remain on through, at least, early January. Among those greatly appreciative of their efforts: Huron city councilman Joel Hagy. "This is a great example of the vitality and character of our small town," Hagy said. "Thanks so much to the folks who took the time to brighten our holidays."