The light that has lighted the world

Driving home from work late at night in December has one benefit a normal commute is missing -- holiday lights. At 1:30 a.m., there are no distracting beams from other headlights and you can go as slowly as you want to enjoy the spectacle.

Even the snow and ice can't dim the visual pleasure these luminaries bring. In fact, a fresh snow fall can enhance the beauty and reflect the light rays into stellar shows. I know that the Grand Rapids Press and Holland Sentinel (Sunday, Dec. 18) have done their own lights parade stories, but here are a few other sites they missed that you can enjoy before the holidays end:

-- Take South Shore Drive out of Holland and follow it west. The folks along Lake Macatawa really know how to decorate. There's a house on the south side that has a two-story front glass window. The family has a Christmas tree that fills the entire height!

-- There's a renovated farm house of 58th Street just north of 126th Avenue that has red candles in each of its many windows and a small tastefully lighted tree in front. It stands out in the open farm land.

-- Several newer houses along 62nd Street between 128th Avenue and M-89 have stunning displays -- white-lighted reindeer and Santas with colored lights in the tall pine trees.

-- Saugatuck. If you like over-the-top displays, here's the place. I often make a detour on the road home to look at the glow on a snowy night. It's so bright that I have stopped the car on Butler Street and been able to read a newspaper without any lights inside the car. If you go down Water Street, you can see several tug boats outlined in lights and, of course, the star on Mount Baldhead always glows. There's a great giant lights tree at the end of Butler Street on a dock in Lake Kalamazoo. A better of view of it comes across the river from Douglas by the Keewatin. On a pitch-black night, it's an awesome beacon.

Thought: Whose woods are these? I think I know. His house in the village though, and decorated with a glowing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.