For years, Francene Dudziec and her two daughters have spent part of their holiday season in the car seeking out the area's best light displays.
Some of them were discovered through word-of-mouth, and sometimes that meant driving until they saw multi-colored, blinking lights. The yearly excursions gave the Moosic resident an idea to catalog the best displays.
"I have two daughters, and they both love Christmas, but we never knew where (the displays) were," she said. We thought "there should really be a site where people can find them. It's not like you're going to advertise your house in the paper."
The thought moved from idea to website at the beginning of the year, when Mrs. Dudziec created locatethelights.com, where she took her idea one step further.
"I thought of the idea just for our area, but heck, we're just listing it by location," she said, adding that after mentioning it to family members out-of-state, the site became national, with searches by ZIP code, town, county or state.
The site is still growing and she has been spreading the word through social media. So far there has been positive response and she hopes to continue adding homes to the online maps.
"Maybe it will encourage someone to go over the top more this year," she said. "We're hoping that we get a lot of submissions."
Rather than seek out the brightest lit homes, Ms. Dudziec said she preferred submissions because that will affirm that the homeowners are willing to attract extra visitors.
"They do spend a lot of time and money. People mostly do it just for their own enjoyment because they love Christmas," she said. "In the future, we'd like to do awards and have some kind of trophy."
If there are trophies given out in the future, the display in Greg Slodysko's backyard will be an instant contender.
Mr. Slodysko, 39, Hughestown, started to decorate his yard six years ago after his son Gregory, one at the time, saw a display which incorporated lights and music online.
"Once he saw that, he wanted to see one in person," his dad explained.
After doing a little research and getting permission from his wife to take over the backyard, Mr. Slodysko, who is an engineer at WNEP-TV, started to set up his own synchronized display. Some of the features include a 23 1/2 foot tree covered in 7,000 lights, approximately 20 songs, and jokes told through blinking light-up faces crafted to look like his son Gregory, now 10, and his daughter Gianna, 8. He also takes song requests.
Mr. Slodysko has a web site, mysite.verizon.net/gslodysko, which displays his hard work, but he also plans to add his home to locatethelights.com.
"I'm hoping that other people see the site. There are a lot of Christmas enthusiasts out there who like to go see the displays," Mr. Slodysko said.
Mrs. Dudziec and her husband, Mike Dudziec, along with her daughters, Lucia Dudziec, 5, and Ariana Liples, 17, will be among the enthusiasts hitting the road this year.
"They were the inspiration behind (the site) because they love driving to see the lights," Mrs. Dudziec said. "We're hoping that we get a lot of submissions."
Contact the writer: rbrown@timsshamrock.com, @rbrownTT on Twitter