Village Names Holiday Lights Contest Winners

It’s time to grab the family, get in the car and go on a cheap, but festive holiday outing.

Each year many Lake in the Hills residents put hours and hours into decorating their homes just right for the holidays.

Last week, the village of Lake in the Hills rewarded the decorating efforts of two residents as part of its annual holiday lights decorating contest. 

The award for best overall design this year went to Adam Ebner of 2830 Hillsboro Lane. The winner of the Griswold Award went to the Figielski family of 220 Hawthorne Road.

Judges had 11 entries to check out before picking the winners this year.

To decide, a team of judges drove around Thursday night to the various houses, keeping the categories in mind as they viewed the glowing creations. Along the way, they rated them, and then took pictures of the homes to remember them as they neared the end of the tour.

Ebner’s house glows with thousands upon thousands of lights covering it. Every 18 inches along the roof Ebner placed a string of lights.

He said it took him about 25 hours in all to decorate the home. He started right after Halloween, and then kept building upon the design on the weekends.

In all, he said there are 15,000 lights of varying sizes on his home, his garage and in his yard. His favorite feature is the lighted house, which features lights all the way at the very top of the roof.

Each week he spends between one and two hours maintaining his design. But that hasn’t deterred him from wanting to do it again. He said the end result is worth it, especially when he sees how excited his two children are over the beautiful decorations.

“Next year, I’ll add a little more hopefully,” Ebner said.

Wyatt Figielski, a freshman at Jacobs High School, was the main decorator of his family’s home on Hawthorne Road.

He said it took him the entire week of Thanksgiving to complete his Griswold-winning design.

He says he started decorating his family’s home with holiday decorations back in 6th grade when he was bored. Since then he’s added more and more. His favorite feature is the lighted pole tree by the garage.

“I like it when I’m finished and I see how good it looks,” he said.

He was excited when he heard he’d won the Griswold award after all of his efforts.

The two winners each get a $25 gift certificate to a Lake in the Hills restaurant for their efforts.

Trevor Bosack, Recreation Supervisor for the village, said the contest is a great tradition that helps celebrate the hard work of its residents to make their homes look festive for the holidays.

“We run this because it’s a great way to involve residents for no charge,” he said. “If people are going to take the time to set up the decorations, they might as well enter to win a gift card.”