Photo by Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times

Craig Patterson's holiday display at his Roanoke County home features nearly 31,000 Christmas lights, up from 17,000 a year ago.

Photo by Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times

Craig Patterson said it took two weeks of planning and 60 hours of work to set up the Christmas lights on his front lawn. Patterson is already planning changes for next year's display.

Photo by Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times

Craig Patterson said it took two weeks of planning and 60 hours of work to set up the Christmas lights on his front lawn. Patterson is already planning changes for next year's display.

Photo by Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times

Craig Patterson syncs the lights in his Christmas display with music and broadcasts his tunes via a low-power FM broadcaster. Visitors can listen as they drive by his home on Starmount Avenue.

Last year Craig Patterson decorated his North Roanoke County home with 17,000 lights.

His roof, laden to capacity with electrical strands, resembled a video monitor as pixel-like bulbs formed images that danced to recorded carols.

His display drew spectators who slowed to a crawl or stopped altogether.

His electric bill shot up like a geyser -- $125 more than the previous month.

But Patterson, 36, a low-voltage technician for Newcomb Electric, looked upon the sparkling yuletide fantasia he'd created and decided ... it just wasn't enough.

"I wanted to add more," he said.

"This year, I'm pushing 31,000 lights."

Save for a single star at the chimney, the roof is now a bulb-free zone.

"The yard seemed a little bare last Christmas," he explained.

But this year, the lawn is loaded with lights and, nightly starting last week, it has served up a show.

Gold bursts dash across a pair of green arches, leaving trails in their wake.

A pulsing, swirling, 20-foot-tall Mega Tree -- a framework of bulb strands -- stands in the center of the yard, flanked by two 10-foot Mega Trees and a row of shin-high pines.

An image projector reflects falling snowflakes across the front door, and a heavy framework by the picture window offers electrified seasonal greetings.

One small live tree by the driveway has its branches wrapped with 44 different light strands.

"Eleven of each color," Patterson noted.

But the amount of thought, effort and expense Patterson puts into his holiday display could well eclipse the lights.

He said he's put about $12,000 into it over three years.

It took two weeks of planning and about 60 hours across two weekends to assemble everything. A hydraulic lift had to be rented to raise the larger displays. He estimates he's using about 3,500 feet of extension cords but has no idea how many feet of light strands were used.

A lighted sign in the yard advises spectators to tune their FM dial to 95.7 -- that's the frequency at which Patterson broadcasts songs via a low-power transmitter, which has a range of about a block. He doesn't use exterior speakers, so listening on the radio is the only way to hear -- and fully appreciate -- the display.

The song sequences were synchronized and "directed" by Patterson using computer software that allows him to preview and program each light. He can add as many tunes as he wants but said 10 seconds of music takes about an hour to arrange. "There's weeks worth of programming right there."

So why does Patterson do all this?

"Christmas is the best holiday," he said, simply, chuckling. "It's the only holiday."

But there's also a true sense he has fun doing it and genuinely wants others to enjoy it as well.

The light display's Web site (yes, it has its own elaborate Web site, www.starcitylights.com) includes a polite, reasonable, slightly apologetic list of "viewing etiquette," as well as a link for visitors to contribute to the Salvation Army.

"I've gotten a couple of Christmas cards saying, 'We love the lights,' " he said. Patterson said he feels the festive value of the display offsets his somewhat extravagant electrical usage.

"About half of my lights are LED-based" as opposed to incandescent bulbs, he said. "They use about 98 percent less electricity."

No one has complained about it "other than saying, 'better you than me,' or 'I don't want to pay your electric bill,' " he said.

"He gets a really good response, he's really dedicated to them," said Tina Ramirez, his nearest neighbor. "It's beautiful. At night, the cars just line up as soon as he turns them on."

Wednesday evening, just after sundown, as Patterson and his mother, Mary, watched, cars cruised by, the 95.7 carols on their stereo systems audible even outside.

"That's the part I like," Mary Patterson said as the lights, at the top of their cycle, flared up in unison.

Craig Patterson said he's already planning changes for next year, and at one point idly mentioned a home in Northern Virginia that he's heard has 165,000 lights.

But as he watches his work and plots improvements, one thought comes to mind: If he ever decides to celebrate Halloween -- which he mentioned as a possibility -- look out.