Your guide to top displays

Remember the days before GPS, when people used to print out directions to unfamiliar locations? Remember jokes about men being unwilling to stop and ask directions? Remember AAA Triptiks?

Remember my Christmas Light Tours?

If you’re relatively new to The Morning Call, you may not know that before I retired in 2018 and GPS became ubiquitous, I provided a valuable service at this time of year.

I offered 25 years of massive turn-by-turn holiday tours of the Valley’s best lights, something I’m convinced no newspaper or other media outlet in the United States ever attempted. My tours, with routes named for things my friends and I ate on our travels, made me such a holiday celebrity around here that I had an RCN TV special every Christmas for 20 years and used the enticement of my guided tours to launch a fundraising and hunger awareness campaign that resulted in more than $213,000 over the years for Second Harvest Food Bank and lots of food contributions and money for them and other charities. Several displays still collect for charity, so bring along some canned goods and cash if you’re touring.

The Call and other local media have continued to highlight holiday lights every year since I retired, but nothing like what I did with the help of friends and the forbearance of my family, who had to put up with my disappearing pretty much every night during December and almost always getting sick.

Well, I’m back. Sort of.

This will be nothing like those tours. For one thing, I’m too old to tackle that kind of project again, and even if I survived the exhaustion, my wife would kill me. For another, GPS has rendered my approach somewhat obsolete, although my tours often meandered from the shortest possible route to encompass as many displays as possible.

What I will provide is a list of spectacular houses, curated from my past tours and nominations sent to the Call this year. Working alone, as I did when all this began in 1992 — I told you I’m old — I visited all the nominated houses and lots of the homes that used to be on my tours. I’ll highlight the ones that individually or collectively in my opinion justify a family outing — my test always was whether it makes you say, “WOW!” — and I’ll also list the other nominees, commercial and private, received by the time I filed this story. All the decorators did a great job.

I make no claims that I’ve included every spectacular display in Lehigh and Northampton counties, just that you won’t be disappointed by the ones on my list. Wherever possible, I’ll try to group them by geography or category, beginning with what I think are the three most amazing displays in the Lehigh Valley.

Get out of the car

Most displays are drive-bys, but there are at least three exceptions: They are 3415 Oregon St., Palmer Township; Lights in Greenawalds at 2040 Greenawalds Ave., South Whitehall; and 1309 W. Minor St., Emmaus. None can be fully appreciated unless you park and walk through.

The Oregon Street display, which now extends into the back yard, features every inflatable known to man, great lights and lots more. I consider it the Valley’s most mind-blowing display.

The house at 3415 Oregon St. in Palmer Township shows...

The house at 3415 Oregon St. in Palmer Township shows off its holiday cheer Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

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The house at 3415 Oregon St. in Palmer Township shows off its holiday cheer Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

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Lights in Greenawalds has all kinds of animated displays, a cool website, a gala opening ceremony and the biggest Abominable Snow Monster I’ve ever seen. (I found him again later at 3213 East Blvd., Bethlehem.) Oregon features hot drinks and popcorn, and Thursday to Sunday, Greenawalds has those plus swag, live characters from holiday lore, a scavenger hunt and even fake snow.

West Minor is an incredibly eccentric collection of lights, blow molds, pop culture references and other fun bric-a-brac that is featured in a scavenger hunt the kids will love. They’ll find candy canes, too.

The house at 1309 W. Minor St. in Emmaus shows...

The house at 1309 W. Minor St. in Emmaus shows off its holiday cheer Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

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The house at 1309 W. Minor St. in Emmaus shows off its holiday cheer Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

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Let there be music

Several displays feature lights dancing in time to music, mostly accessed through FM radio. The most spectacular and well-synchronized of those, in my opinion, are at 160 Lacks Lane, Moore Township — which has the added treat of an eye-popping nonmusical display across the street at 159 Lacks — and 201 Cherry Court, Bushkill Township, where you need to lower your window to hear the songs. Other terrific musical displays I saw were at 1693 Windmill Lane, Upper Macungie (check out the Tully Family Christmas Lights website); 113 W. St. Elmo St., Upper Nazareth; and the most sprawling of all, 198 Firehouse Lane, Bushkill.

The house at 159 Lacks Lane in Moore Township shows off its holiday cheer for the 2025 season. (Contributed photo)
Crazy town

I used to write that a favorite Northampton Borough display was so crowded — in that case mostly with wooden cutouts in a tiny yard — that it looked like Times Square on New Year’s Eve. That image came to mind when I saw the wild display at 1104 Wellington Circle, Laurys Station, where you’ll find characters from a broad array of movies and TV programs, jam-packed throughout the yard. It truly is astounding.

The house at 1104 Wellington Circle in Laurys Station shows...

The house at 1104 Wellington Circle in Laurys Station shows off its holiday cheer Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)

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The house at 1104 Wellington Circle in Laurys Station shows off its holiday cheer Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)

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Also crowded, in this case with blow molds, is the Horvath Holiday House at 4244 Briarcliff Road, South Whitehall. You’re invited to walk out back to get the full effect.

Elegance

I’ve been accused many times of preferring crazy displays to beautiful ones. Which is true. But if you love tasteful white light elegance, you won’t do much better than 5920 Lori Court, Upper Saucon, and the surrounding neighborhood of big homes beautifully decorated in white lights.

The longtime favorite at 6887 Lincoln Drive, Lower Macungie, is another vision in white.

Look fast

My only complaint about the great display at 220 E. 21st St., Northampton, always has been that there’s nowhere to pull over and admire it the way it deserves. Your best bet is to park somewhere nearby and see it on foot. By the way, they’re collecting for the Northampton Area Food Bank, as is another nice display not far away at 583 Coventry Court, Northampton.

The holiday lights display for the 2025 season at 220 E. 21st St. in Northampton is worth seeing on foot to fully admire it. (Contributed photo)
Golden oldies

The granddaddy — or grandmommy, if you prefer — of Lehigh Valley Christmas displays is at 1135 Sunset View Drive, Hanover Township, and it still looks great. Check out the nice tribute to the late Gene Ashner, one of many wonderful decorators I got to interview over the years on the RCN programs, and bring something along for their food bank collection. Other displays dating back to my early tour days and still going strong include 2028 S. Sixth St., Allentown, which is in its last year on this scale; 1624 Arrowwood, Forks — I loved the Minions — and 422 Second St., West Easton, always decorated in glorious red and green.

Christmas Vacation

There are two particularly enjoyable tributes to the holiday classic “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.” The most overt is the Griswolds on Sullivan display at 5685 Sullivan Trail, Plainfield Township, where you’ll not only find Clark Griswold on the front porch, but also Cousin Eddie’s RV and the Griswold family station wagon, complete with oversized Christmas tree on top. But if you’re looking for a solid wall of white lights like Clark created, follow the glow to the amazing 420 Gail Ave., Salisbury.

Mini-tour

OK, I promised I wasn’t doing tours like the old days, but if you’re visiting Emmaus for 1309 W. Minor, you definitely should check out the big display at 735 Wayne Circle, Emmaus — I particularly like the Kings of Beasts — and then go through town and up the hill to 49 Hickory Lane, where you’ll see a little boy with his tongue stuck to a flagpole, among other great animated items. One caution on this one: You can drive past the display and follow the road around to where you started, but it’s even more deeply rutted than I remembered, so take it slow.

Great white north

Here’s another three-house combination of great displays, which I braved some snow-covered roads to see. You’ll find giant animated displays in Lehigh Township at 670 Stagecoach Drive and 4246 Cedar Drive, the latter of which may have the Valley’s best roofage. Not far away is a lovely gingerbread house at 4049 Heather Court.

Best of the rest

Finally, if you’re touring in any of these areas, check out these other nominated homes and government/commercial displays:

422 Grange Road, Upper Macungie
1718 Lotus Drive, Upper Macungie
659 Roosevelt Ave., Fountain Hill
7264 Snowberry Court, Lower Macungie
950 Oakwood St., Palmer
4827 Egypt Road, North Whitehall
2036 Riverside Drive, Lower Saucon
220 S. 18th St., Allentown
Borough of Northampton display, 1 Lerchenmiller Drive.
Holiday Lights Spectacular at Becky’s Drive-In, 4548 Lehigh Drive, Lehigh Township.

That’ll do it. Now load up your car with cookies and wassail, turn on your phone’s map app and amaze your family with the best our wonderful Lehigh Valley decorators have to offer.

And don’t be afraid to say, “WOW!” It’s what they live for.

Bill White can be reached at whitebil1974@gmail.com.

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