WILMINGTON — For a nearly mile-long stretch along Concord Street, cars lined up in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Thursday, all to catch a glimpse of the mesmerizing Christmas light display that was named the winner of ABC’s “The Great Christmas Light Fight” the night before.
“I can’t believe that it’s such a big attraction that people specifically came all this way to see it,” said 23-year-old Charles Fiore, the Wilmington resident who spearheaded construction of the overwhelming spectacle.
Fiore took home the Light Fight Trophy and $50,000 on Wednesday, after his exhibit featuring 255,000 colorful lights wowed Taniya Nayak, the judge of the decoration competition show, and topped a trio of impressive displays erected by families in Utah, Missouri and New York.
In addition to lining his lengthy driveway with light-up holiday decorations and covering his entire house with red and green lights, Fiore spent seven weeks building and decorating eight movie-like building facades with the help of family and friends, each of which measured 16 feet across and 26 feet high.
“This is not a house, this is an entire town. I’ve never seen anything like this,” Nayak exclaimed during the episode, which was filmed last year. “I feel like I’m in a fairy tale.”
Fiore said he started setting up Christmas decorations 16 years ago, but became very inspired in 2012 after seeing the remarkable light display set up at Disney and Hollywood Studios.
“They had a fake street, movie set-type of town, covered completely in lights, so I wanted to try to make something like that,” he said.
In 2018, his house and driveway display became so eye-catching that it turned into a staple for holiday light peepers and even garnered coverage from local news stations.
A few days after his arrangement made the news, Fiore said he got a call from someone in the casting department of “The Great Christmas Light Fight,” asking if he’d be interested in applying to be on.
“I just always enjoyed Christmas decorations and the spirit of everything. And once people started coming to see the display, I realized I wanted to be able to create a whole experience and enjoyment for them and their families,” Fiore said.
Leading up to Christmas 2019, Fiore said he was assisted by three to four people a day for the two months it took to complete the movie set-type town he desired, pouring around $45,000 into the project.
“He laid most of it out, and while he was doing all the little intricate things we were doing the easy stuff,” said Fiore’s 21-year-old brother, Jonas Fiore. “He was designing the buildings and then we’d string the lights on and make sure it was all supported correctly.”
Fortunately, all the hard work paid off handsomely.
“It’s overwhelming. It all happened so fast, I never thought I’d make it close to this and then all of a sudden it just happened,” Fiore said. “It feels like yesterday it was just a dream.”
When asked how long he plans to keep setting up lights like this, Fiore said he expects to move out eventually and have his own house, but that he still wants to keep setting them up for as long as he can.
The light display is located at 12R Concord St. and is open until around 9:30 p.m. on weeknights and 10 p.m. on weekends, according to Fiore. Visitors are encouraged to drive through as quickly as possible in order to reduce traffic.
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Wilmington resident wins $50G for top Christmas lights display in the country - Lowell Sun
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