WINDHAM – Residential Christmas light displays, you’ve got to admit, have become a little humdrum. Some particularly merry folks fill every square inch of their yards with blow-up this, snow-covered that, but in the end, one display pretty much looks like another.

Not so for a home off River Road in South Windham, just up the hill from the Maine Correctional Center.

The display is definitely unique, with green floodlights shining a Christmas-y hue on the home and randomly flashing strobe lights filling the trees overhead. The bright display, which grabs the attention of northbound River Road motorists from a mile away, is unlike anything this side of the North Pole.

The display is the work – and it is hard work – of Steve Flesher and Flesher’s friend, Barry Strout, a handyman who lives nearby on High Street who has painstakingly placed the lights in the trees surrounding the home each December for the past three years.

Strout, whose day job is owner of the handyman Black Sheep Service Co., has become good friends with Flesher. Strout, his wife Amy and son Nathan make a day of the light-stringing project. In return, Flesher will invite them over for some home-cooked dinners throughout the year.

“Steve makes some good suppers, that’s for sure,” Strout said, “We have a great time. We’re really good friends. I did an addition for them, so they were good customers and have become fantastic friends.”

Strout, a licensed tree arborist among other skills such as carpentry and roofing, uses his bucket truck to place about 75 plastic strobe bulbs into the trees above Flesher’s residence. Like the motorists on River Road, Strout also enjoys the final product, with the lights glowing for the month of December.

“I really like it, it’s a calming look. It’s definitely something different. Everything nowadays is sort of the same, but this has a little extra pop,” Strout said.

“Barry’s awesome,” said Flesher, who said he was inspired by a display at LL Bean in Freeport. “It takes him about eight hours to string the lights, and then he has to take them down before spring comes. So it’s a lot of work.”

Flesher started off three years ago with strobe lights and added the green floodlights last year. This year he thought about adding a laser show, but found Maine law prohibits the use of residential laser lights.

Since the light display is a constant work in progress, Flesher and Strout also learned the hard way the first year that the bulbs had to be taken down annually.

“The first year we did this, we were sitting on lawn chairs in the spring and started hearing crashing around the yard,” Flesher recalled. “The squirrels thought the bulbs were food or something and they starting falling one by one. It was crazy. These bulbs, mind you, are $12 a pop. Now we take them down as soon as the snow is gone.”

Before they could get into the tree to salvage the bulbs that were left, the squirrels had gnawed off about 20 bulbs, or about $250 worth.

“We think the squirrels thought they were fruit. They are pretty colorful,” Flesher said.

In all, about 75 bulbs adorn the trees above the home. Add in the expense of the heavy-duty cables as well as new outside electrical service, and the cost of creating the display tops $1,500.

But the display, while fun for Flesher and Strout, is also fun for passersby, some of whom have stopped to inquire about the display. One nearby prison worker has said the display looks like a spaceship. Others don’t know what to make of it, telling Flesher it’s simply beautiful and wondrous.

For good or ill, the display has also become a favorite of motorists who drive down a side street to get closer to the home for a better look, a practice that is actually becoming something of a neighborhood traffic hazard. Flesher said motorists should instead stick to nearby River Road or Mallison Falls Road for the best views and to avoid complaints from neighbors.

“On the weekend, we can get about 50 cars a night pulling in, but it’s a dead-end and we encourage folks from coming down the street since there’s no good place to turn around. But, other than the traffic, we enjoy the comments we get, it’s great,” said Flesher.

Flesher hasn’t gone to all the expense and effort only for others, however, though that’s a big part of his enjoyment. The display, which is lit up as close to Dec. 1 as possible in accordance with Strout’s work schedule and is switched off after New Year’s, is becoming a yearly tradition for Flesher.

“Yes, we like the reaction. People tell us it brightens their day, when they are coming home from work and come over the hill on River Road, they see the lights and it just brightens their day,” said Flesher, who says he also enjoys seeing the display shine on the horizon as he navigates River Road after a hard day’s work. “I love it, that’s my route home, too. It just makes you feel good.”

Flesher and Strout’s project has hit the Internet, as well. Flesher has posted a YouTube clip of Strout and Flesher stringing the lights. The two-minute movie can be accessed by entering “RoadTripper2010” in YouTube’s search field. Then click on the video, “We need a little Christmas.”

Barry Strout has a lot to be proud of. He’s the guy responsible for stringing the fantastic strobe light display on a home off River Road near the prison in Windham. The display catches the attention of many a northbound River Road commuter during the month of December. (Photo by Rich Obrey)The plastic strobe bulbs, at $12 apiece, are the colorful technology behind the magical display. (Photo by Rich Obrey)