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A happy yuletide accident Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Doug Rush�s house lights up the end of the Greystone Court cul-de-sac with 9,000 lights outside and 3,600 lights inside. The neighborhood�s light displays have become a holiday tradition for many Medford residents, drawing as many as 1,200 vehicles throughout the season. Lights fantastic just sprung up on Medford cul-de-sac By Mark Freeman Faced with spending their first holiday season in their new Colonial home in east Medford in 1993, Bob and Nancy Hoffman pined for a little Christmas flair from their old upstate New York environs. "We thought decorating the house with white lights would make it look like snow, and that would be the closest we�d get to a white Christmas," Bob Hoffman recalls. A few neighbors also happened to adorn their new homes with white lights, and my, they said, doesn�t this look nice. From those first few filaments illuminate a new neighborhood tradition shared annually with all of Medford by the folks on Greystone Court. The annual Christmas light display by the residents of Greystone Court, off North Phoenix Road between Hillcrest and Barnett roads, has since become the unofficial Christmas cul-de-sac of Medford. From cars packed with kids to buses from retirement villas, as many as 1,200 vehicles with their lights off flow up and down Greystone each night now through Christmas, soaking in the elegant glow of 13 homes adorned in white. "Eggnog, renting �White Christmas� and driving down that street to look at the lights has become part of our new Christmas for us," says Edith Horton of Medford. "We�re relatively new to the area, and it�s nice to have a new holiday tradition for our time in Medford." While the neighborhood display appears as if choreographed, Greystoners say it�s anything but that. Residents say there is no organized effort to make Greystone a light-watching destination, and nothing in the neighborhood codes, covenants and restrictions declares that all pillars and gutters be ablaze each night in icicle white. There�s no neighborhood meetings, not even a street ring-leader. "There�s no instigator, no plan. Everybody just does what they like," says Carolyn Crews, one of the court�s newer homeowners. "When somebody moves in, we don�t tell them to (decorate). But even if we did, I don�t think anyone could say no now. They�d be humiliated." Nobody wants to have the only house on Greystone Court without Christmas lights. Certainly not Doug Rush, a self-described bah-humbugger from his retail sales days who now is the street�s Clark Griswold. His columns and gutters sport about 9,000 lights outside; another 3,600 brighten the inside enough that the Rushes seem able to sing carols and tan simultaneously. "Electricity only lets you go so far before you have to stop," says Rush, whose display soaks up $100 worth of extra juice a month. "And I think I�m there." But Greystone Court is known more for its elegance and continuity than the number of lights it sports. While some holiday decor entails little more than seeing how many light strands can be stapled to a home before all the fuses blow, Greystone houses evoke quality with quantity. "And that, I think, is one of the things that make it unique," Rush says. But the original homeowners never intended for their court to garner such local fame. "It was never intended to be a place for anyone to come and see things," says Hoffman, one of the few original owners left on the 8-year-old street. "We just put them up for us to see, and things evolved." And over the years, residents like Hoffman have come to appreciate the lights as much for the smiles they bring others as for the feeling of a white-lighted Christmas. "When you see the cars go by with kids ages 3 to 10, they really light up when they see it," Hoffman says. "You realize, with just a little effort, you really can make someone�s day." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.