Who's got the most glamorous job in Coeur d'Alene on the day after Thanksgiving?

Why, John Eloe, of course. As director of facilities for The Coeur d'Alene Resort, this humble man describes his job duties as "overseeing the maintenance and upkeep of the hotel, which includes such things as infrastructure, electrical plumbing and preventative maintenance."

But what about your starring role in The Coeur d'Alene Resort Holiday Light Show, Mr. Eloe?

Did you ever imagine when you were growing up in Colorado that some day you'd be the man giving the countdown for the lighting of more than a million and a half holiday bulbs?

Actually, it never crossed my mind.

What I wanted to be was a chef - a fancy French cuisine kind of chef. After I finished culinary school, I went to work at the Halekulani Hotel on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. I loved the industry, I loved cooking and I put my heart and soul into it.

But as I got older, I realized that I wanted a wife and kids. In the business I was in, then, I was away or working for every one of the holidays.

I realized I was going to have to choose between cooking for a family or cooking for others. Having a family came first.

How did you end up at The Coeur d'Alene Resort?

Early on in my career I did do some cooking here and worked at the Convention Center. But I realized I had to travel a different route, that cooking really wasn't the direction I needed to go.

So I left here and went with a company that sold and installed blinds, but within six months of getting married, I was out of a job with no idea what to do next.

A friend got me on in the Seattle area as a laborer working for Silver Cloud Inns and Hotels. Over time, I was promoted to chief corporate engineer for them. By then I had nine years hotel infrastructure and maintenance experience and three brothers living in Coeur d'Alene.

When the facilities director position opened up at The Resort, you could have blown me over with a feather because it was exactly what I wanted. I started here in May of 2006.

Does being facilities director have the same pizzazz and excitement of being chef at a fancy restaurant?

No, it doesn't. But I really love it here because I love to work with my hands and to transform things - to bring things together so that people look at them and say, "Oh, wow!"

Which brings us back to the Christmas lights. Did you know when you were hired that you would be the man behind the lights?

They did tell me that it was part of the job, but I honestly had no idea what that meant. My initial thought was, "So I turn on some Christmas lights."

All I can say about that is you can't possibly know what it means until you do it.

When does the annual planning start?

In July we have a kick-off meeting to discuss what's new and big and exciting for the upcoming Christmas. In 2006, my first year at the Resort, there was a lot of brainstorming and some talk about decorating the tree in front of the Hagadone house.

I'd never seen the actual lights before and from the discussion going on, I finally realized that the holiday lights program was really going to be my responsibility.

I went home that night and said, "They want me to decorate a 161-foot tree with lights and I've got to somehow figure out how to do it." My biggest concern was not having enough power to use traditional lights, so we used LEDS. I put a budget together for $28,000 and presented it to the General Manager. He didn't even flinch.

Feeling the pressure back then, were you?

I kept saying to myself, "I gotta make this happen, I gotta make this happen." Let me tell you, behind every good facilities director are good people - we have a world-class engineering group.

That tree was a major challenge. It had 30,000 lights on it and we learned a lot building the wire grid of steel cables supporting those lights. At one point we had to spend hours untangling this mess we'd created.

But in the end it was the type of display that left people breathless.

Give me some glitzy statistics about the lights.

Well, the current tree at the Hagadone house is 101 feet. The corporate Christmas tree on top of Hagadone headquarters is about 70 feet.

The total utility bill for the lights is $5000 and to light one of the trees lining the Resort driveway costs $17 a month.

To put up the exterior lights, it takes about 20 people, each working anywhere from one to seven weeks. It takes a solid two weeks to get everything out of the storage trailers.

We start putting up the lights Oct. 1 and we use people from a lot of different departments, including several golf course caddies.

We have five miles of electrical lighting and more than 1.5 million bulbs.

Does the display change much from year to year?

I would say 80 percent is familiar and 20 percent is new. We try to do more than have just one big surprise every year.

If I board a lake cruise boat during December, what will I have to look forward to?

First you'll see the marina displays, which are pretty amazing. But the real excitement will be at the North Pole across the lake because Santa's sitting there in his house on a floating dock right where the boat's coming in and he's got a list - well, we all know what that means.

When the boat gets to the other side of the lake, lights will come on in Santa's house. We built that structure about three years ago and it's totally decorated to resemble Santa's living room.

After the boat arrives, Santa will look at his list and start talking to the kids and the kids just light up.

Also, this year, the Hagadone 101-foot tree will be animated. We've figured out how to make the lights dance to music.

There's no other show on earth where you come down, bring your kids, go to the North Pole on a boat and when they get there, Santa will greet them by name.

What about the marina?

We decorate the marina with multiple different displays.

This year we'll have a new display of a fire-spitting dragon with a real 20-foot flame guarding Neptune's castle.

Then there's the tree on the top of Hagadone headquarters. It's covered in lights and when the sun goes down it's a beacon. Who doesn't love beautiful greenery?

What will happen Nov. 29 just before the curtain officially rises on the 2013 Coeur d'Alene Resort Holiday Light Show?

What usually happens is we have over 15 people placed at 12 different locations from the marina to the hotel to the plaza to the boardwalk bar and they're all in radio contact with me. Meanwhile, I'm standing right next to the guy calling the fireworks and I've been told what the last number he's going to call is.

So I'm calling on my radio to all my engineers. "Stand by they're at number 150, number 175 - all stations lights are imminent - standby for countdown -- live in 10. And then I start counting and at the end I'm screaming, "Go, go go" on the radio and suddenly it's lights everywhere.

What's the most thrilling moment you've had over the years?

It happened my first year here when I put the 12-foot-wide star up on the top of the 161-foot tree -the world's tallest Christmas tree. You know, sometimes you don't realize the beauty of where you live until you're lucky enough to get the chance to do something that extraordinary.

Information: The Coeur d'Alene Resort at 800-688-5253.