MOSES LAKE — The winners of the Light Up Moses Lake contest all have one thing in common. They love Christmas lights.

“Lights are something cheery,” Jamie Casteel said.

Casteel and fellow members of the Columbia Basin Sons of Norway took first place in the static display category. The group’s display is an attempt to bring some fun into what has been a pretty bad year.

“We’re trying to recapture a little of the holiday spirit that was stolen from everybody,” she said.

Light Up Moses Lake started Dec. 4 with a contest and continues with holiday lights throughout the city.

“I love Christmas lights,” said Laura Mayer, owner of Art Garden Pottery, at 104 W. Third Ave., which won the business category.

Her store window is designed to put people — including herself — in a good mood.

“When I leave and lock up at night it’s my favorite time,” Mayer said. “When I leave I have to drive by my store a couple times,” just to look at the lights.

Cheryl and Alan Coulter, winners of the home category, usually light up their display on Thanksgiving night. But this year, they turned on the lights the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and some kids from the neighborhood came around a few days earlier to ask if the lights were ready at the home.

The Coulter home, at 2069 S. Crestmont Drive, has become a destination at Christmas time, as the yard is filled with about 10,000 lights, 67 inflatable yard decorations and 1.8 miles of extension cords.

“On Christmas Eve, there’s a lot of people out here (in front of the Coulter house) in their pajamas,” taking family Christmas photos, Alan Coulter said.

They always get asked three questions, Cheryl Coulter said: how long the display takes to put up, where it’s all stored, and the total of the electric bill.

It takes about two weeks to put up, she said, and they start right after they take down the Halloween display. Most of the components are stored in 55-gallon drums, 10 just for Christmas decorations and two more for extension cords.

“And we don’t divulge how much the electric bill is,” Cheryl Coulter said.

When it came to Christmas lights, “my family would go all out,” Mayer said. In fact, her dad built the displays himself. It was a lot of work to maintain — and Mayer was assigned a lot of that work — but there was a reward.

“My mother would just love to have people drive by our house,” Mayer said.

The trees in the windows at Art Garden Pottery didn’t take as much work as her dad’s creations.

“I’ve created a lot of those with tomato cages and garlands and lights,” Mayer said.

When Christmas is over, the trees are wrapped in plastic and stored until the next Christmas.

“We check the lights and plug them in,” she said.

The Columbia Basin Sons of Norway built their “static display” as a parade float, designed to remember and recognize the generations who’ve been part of the lodge, both those who have passed away and those still living.

“It was a way to honor those that came before us,” Casteel said.

Her friend, and fellow Son of Norway, Robert Johnson, built the ship, a Viking vessel 25 feet long with a dragon at the prow, belching smoke from its nostrils.

“It’s actually super-cool,” she said.

“We had big plans for 2020,” Casteel said, with a long list of parades, but none of the parades happened. So Casteel decided to deck out the ship for Halloween and park it in her yard.

It was a big hit, and people asked her if the Sons planned to decorate the boat for Christmas. Then Casteel heard about the Light Up Moses Lake contest, and she knew what she wanted to do.

“I called my shipbuilder and said, ‘Get ready,’” she said.

Casteel and Johnson covered the boat in Christmas lights. Decorating was a big project.

“Oh, we were out there at noon (Dec 4),” Casteel said, for the display that started at 5 p.m. “But it’s worth it.”

Sponsors for the Light Up Moses Lake contest included McCain Foods, Movement Mortgage Moses Lake, Samaritan Healthcare, Skaug Brothers Carpet One Floor & Home, Skaug Brothers Glass, Grant County PUD, Guild Mortgage, Weinstein Beverage, Northwest Farm Credit Services, Moses Lake Shed Company, CC McGraw LLC, Arrowhead Roofing and Dairy Queen.

Community partners included the Grant County Health District, Moses Lake LEAD, Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce, Grant County Fairgrounds, city of Moses Lake, Columbia Basin Herald and the Downtown Moses Lake Association.