Sharing joy with Christmas lights

"Nice house!" 

The young people smiled as they called out from behind the rolled-down windows of their truck driving by. Robert Bostick chuckled as they drove away, then turned back to contemplating his plans to improve the waterfall made of Christmas lights cascading down from the roof. The waterful is just one of many features in Bostick's elaborate light display, which includes scenery and animals native to Wyoming.

In addition to drive-by praise, Bostick regularly receives feedback on his Christmas lights from those who admire them and have made driving by his house a part of their Christmas traditions. 

"That's why I do it," he said. "It's for the people. And for me," he added with a laugh. 

Another Green River family that has also become well-known for their Christmas lights shares the same sentiment. 

"It's a lot of work, but we still enjoy doing it," Wendy Pugmire said of the elaborate light show set to music that she and her family do every year. "Our reward is that the community enjoys it." 

The Bosticks' and the Pugmires' homes have become some of the most well-known in Green River when it comes to Christmas lights, and with good reason, as both have been sharing and expanding their festive displays for many years. 

Pugmires' musical show

The Pugmires are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their musical light display this year, but their love for similar displays goes back even further. 

"My husband, he loves to do the lights, and it's something he always wanted to do," Wendy explained. 

She and her husband Duane have always loved driving around and looking at Christmas lights together, so once they had the house and yard and ability to do their own lights, they wanted to do something special. Duane especially loved light displays that were programmed to change along with music. So when his birthday came around in November 10 years ago, Wendy knew what she wanted to get him. 

"So that year for his birthday, I got him his first box," Wendy said. "Of course I got stuck with programming it," she added with a laugh. "So he does all the outside stuff. And now we're up to four boxes, and we want to expand it even more." 

The "box" Wendy got for Duane is a specific kind of technology that allows lights to be programmed to flash and change in certain sequences to match music. While it takes more specific programming knowledge to build the sequences from scratch, sequences can also be purchased. Wendy buys sequences, but then alters and adds to them herself from the computer. She also has to purchase the music separately, and usually has to put programs together so the music, vocals, and light sequence all line up correctly. 

Starting with one box and working their way up to four over time, the Pugmires have been consistently adding new lights, programs, sequences, and effects over the years. 

"And now you see where we're at," Wendy said. 

Courtesy photo

The Pugmires are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their musical light display this year.

This year, the Pugmire's show has 22 songs total. They play half the songs on Monday and Wednesday, the other half on Tuesday and Thursday, and the full show Friday through Sunday. Wendy explained that this makes the show shorter on weekdays, and gives people the chance to choose when they come and to have a different experience on different nights. 

"Usually we add at least one new song every year," Wendy added, explaining that each year they'll take out an older song that's been there for a while, but it may still eventually be added back into the show in the future. "We just try to rotate songs."

The Pugmires also have ideas of how they can keep expanding the show, hoping to eventually add even more boxes and lights so they can continue to expand their capabilities for things like changing and controlling light colors. 

Another part of the light show that the Pugmires hope will continue to expand in the future is the annual food drive they do along with it. The idea to host a food drive came after they'd been doing the show for a few years. 

"We just said, 'You know, we have all these people come to our house every year. We have them lined up around the block. Why not do a food drive?'" Wendy explained. 

For the first several years, the food drive was incredibly successful. One year, the Pugmires filled the back of their F350 with donations for the food bank, while another year they filled the back of an SUV, Wendy said. 

Over the past few years, however, donations have tapered off, with no food being given yet this year. Wendy said she realizes that the economy has been bad, and people aren't always able to give, or may have forgotten that the Pugmires accept donations. However, she said they are determined to keep hosting the food drive each year, donating whatever they receive, and hoping to give more. 

From the food drive to the light show itself, the Pugmires are happy to be able to find ways to give back. 

"That's what we wanted. We wanted to do something for the community," Wendy said.

The family loves to hear people share how much they love the light show, or explain that it's become a tradition for them, or tell about how they or their family members traveled to be able to see it. 

"We love to look out the window and see a line of cars," Wendy said. 

She also pointed out that they wouldn't put so much work into the light show if it didn't have such a strong response from the community, and the enthusiasm from others is what keeps it growing. 

However, they also have a fan at home that keeps them going now. The Pugmire's son, Jacob, wasn't born yet when they started their Christmas light show, but he has grown up with it and now enjoys helping his dad put the lights up every year. 

Courtesy photo

Wendy, Duane and Jacob Pugmire

"Now it's a family thing," Wendy said. 

The Pugmires plan to keep their tradition going, and growing, for the future. 

Bosticks' tribute to Wyoming

Another tradition that keeps growing is the Bostick's annual Christmas light display, even though its origins stretch back even further than the Pugmires'. 

"Our Christmas spirit started way in the beginning," Robert Bostick explained. "My brother and I were both raised here. Our parents used to take us down Jensen street back in the 70s and early 80s, and they used to light up every house on that street back then. So that's kind of where everybody got interested in Christmas lights. We started decorating the house kind of casually throughout the years." 

Robert has been helping his parents Ed and Rita decorate their house since the early 2000s. His mom had always wanted a nativity scene, and his dad found a way to build one out of plywood, so Robert put it together. His dad also found plans for building wolf silhouettes out of plywood, and Robert figured out how to turn them into a light display. One year when Robert saw a Texas flag made out of lights on a roof in Rock Springs, he admired it, but thought to himself, 'this is Wyoming, we can't have that,' and found a way to create the Wyoming state flag out of lights.

As Robert kept getting more ideas, and Ed loved the idea of the house looking like the Griswald's in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," they just kept finding ways to add more and more decorations. 

"It's kind of morphed over the years," Robert explained. 

Star photo by Hannah Romero

Robert, Rita and Ed Bostick

Now the yard is filled with decorations, the sides of the house are covered in lights and displays, the fence has a large sign spelling out "Seasons Greetings from Green River, Wyoming" in lights, and the roof is fully covered with scenery and animals from Wyoming. The newest additions are a view of the Tetons and a wolverine. Robert also made sure to put the bear silhouettes in front of the Tetons this year as a tribute to Grizzly 399. 

"It's a tribute to Wyoming," Robert explained of the full roof display. 

Robert has plans to continue sharing and adding to the display for the next few years at least, with hopes to add a scene depicting the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Lower Falls for next year, along with a few more animals like bison. 

"I wish I could continue it forever," Robert said. 

As he's added to his display over the years, Robert has received a number of frequently asked questions that he is happy to answer. 

"What's the electric bill?" people ask.

It's not bad, since they switched to LED lights, according to Robert, and usually comes out around $150 for December. 

"How much does it cost?"

For the lights and displays themselves, Robert said he usually spends a few hundred dollars each year to expand and repair it. He also pointed out that the methods they use to put the displays on the roof with brackets and screws keep it secure, but also mean they have to replace the roof itself every so often, which is an additional cost and one of the reasons most people don't display lights in the same way. 

"How many lights are out there?" 

Robert's rough estimate is 15,000 to 20,000 lights. He knows specifics for several displays, such as the Wyoming flag having 520 lights, the elk having 210, smaller animals having 50 to 70, and the new Teton display having 880 total. 

"When you start adding up, it's like, yeah, that's a lot of lights," Robert said. 

When asked how long it takes to put up and take down the display, Robert explains that it usually takes a week to put up, even in bad weather, and takes about a day to take down.

"Am I an electrician? Yes," Robert said, adding that this also helps to answer another frequent question of how he's found ways to make sure the display doesn't trip any outlets. 

When it comes to why the family puts so much time, money, and effort into the display each year, Robert explained that they not only enjoy doing it, but enjoy the response that it gets.

"That's the benefit for me and for my mom and dad, is how people are excited and pleased and it puts them in a good mood," he said. 

Just like the Pugmires, the Bosticks love to know that driving by their house has become a Christmas tradition for so many in the community, and they love to find little ways to share joy with anyone who may need it. 

"We like to give back, and that's a way we can do it," Wendy said. "There's enough stuff going on in the world that being able to have someone say, 'oh, we come to your house and we just sit and watch,' it's perfect. That's why we do it." 

"It's just to bring Christmas spirit, to make people feel good during the month," Robert said of his display. "Life's hard. It's hard for everybody. Everybody has their own things they deal with. And there's ways to escape, and I hope this provides people a way to escape from whatever. And that's what it's really about, is it makes people feel good." 

Both the Pugmires' and the Bosticks' Christmas light displays will be shared until New Year's Eve. The Pugmires' show can be found at 291 Sunset Drive, and the Bosticks' display can be seen at 1915 West Teton Boulevard.