Batavia resident Brett Foy loves bringing joy by decorating his house at 969 Ekman Drive with thousands of Christmas lights and a number of displays, a holiday tradition that will now have him on national television.
Foy’s efforts have attracted local attention as he has appeared twice on ABC-7 TV as a finalist in its “Great Chicago Light Fight.”
While never winning the competition based on viewers’ votes, Foy has now catapulted onto the national stage and will appear with three other contestants on national television at 7 p.m. Thursday during ABC’s “The Great Christmas Light Fight.”
Foy, 51, said decorating his house for Christmas has become a passion of his.
“This is the sixth year I’ve done the show at the house. I’ve been doing lights for over 15 years but then we added the animation,” he said. “As far as contests, the last two years, I was part of ABC’s ‘Great Chicago Light Fight’ contest which is not nationally syndicated. The local station picks five houses in the area and has viewers vote on them.”
Now Foy’s display with be on national television.
“This is the season premiere Thursday at 7 p.m. and will be seen by three or four million people and it’s not just a local ABC-Channel 7 thing but a national television broadcast. It’s my first time,” Foy said. “I worked with their production and their casting team and we got selected to be filmed.”
Oddly enough, Thursday’s program all took place well over a year ago, Foy said. He said he was selected in the summer of 2023 to participate in Season 12 of “The Great Christmas Light Fight.”
“The filming was in November of last year and now it’s airing in December of this year,” Foy said.
Despite finding himself in a national competition, Foy insists “it’s not about winning. It is about bringing joy to the community.
“‘The Great Christmas Light Fight’ is looking for people that are bringing passion to Christmas lights and they showcase many different ways of doing that,” he said. “My particular approach is using animation with lights and music and that’s something that they are always scouting for. Their casting teams are always looking for unique displays that have meaning behind them. Most build a relationship with the casting team and almost nobody gets on the first year when they apply.”
Foy said he first met that team in 2020 “and every year, we’d have a check-in and they said I was getting close and then in 2023 they said we’ve made the decision that you’re up there.”
Foy said his finalist display includes somewhere around 400 props and more than 75,000 total lights, along with 70 minutes of music featuring 20 different songs and “every color possible” being displayed along with the music.
While the project involves doing construction work and sequencing year-round, Foy said the physical set-up starts around Labor Day.
Foy said neighbors and friends know about Thursday’s national TV spotlight.
“There’s a lot of buzz and excitement,” he said. “We’re hosting a fundraiser through a watch party Thursday night at Pal Joey’s with money that’s going to benefit the Batavia Mothers Club Foundation. People give me the feedback that we’re a small-town gem and it’s exciting to see a small-time gem get some national attention.”
On Tuesday night, cars were lined up along Ekman Drive taking in the display.
Debbie Berger of Batavia said a visit to Ekman Drive to see the Christmas display is always a part of the holidays.
“We try to come every year. This has gotten bigger and better every year. We were just sitting here talking about it and, wow, there’s so much more,” Berger said. “We heard that this is going to be on national television and it’s amazing.”
Berger’s friend Sarah Engel of Aurora also enjoyed looking at the lights and said she “was always impressed” with the display.
“We see many different light shows and people have lights up, but he has a great dynamic with movement and color and the photo opportunity there,” she said. “His show runs long enough to really make it worth coming and sitting here and watching with the kids in the car. When they were small we’d come more than once.”
Foy himself is surprised at his own acumen in putting the display together.
“I’m not an artist, I’m not an electrician, there’s computer stuff that I do, and there’s construction stuff and I’m not a construction worker,” he said. “To bring it all together, there’s so many aspects and I’m none of those things but somehow, I pulled it off. I can go and watch myself for an hour and say, ‘Wow, I did that.’”
He said all the work to put together the massive holiday display is worth it.
“Look at the effect on the people who are enjoying it,” he said. “What this light show provides to the community and the world is, in potential moments of darkness, whether personal or national or wherever it might be, you never know where anyone’s head space is at. When they come and see this show they are transported out of that head space and they are getting pure joy.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
