Levittown Man Lights Up With Santa For Final Time

Hundreds of people packed Whitespruce Lane in Falls Township’s Levittown section Saturday night to watch the massive Christmas display switch on for its final season.

This year marks 25 years for Neil DiSpirito’s annual Christmas light celebration and the final year that his display will brighten Willowood for the weeks leading up to Christmas. For DiSpirito, the end of the tradition can only be described as bittersweet.

This year, the lights at 1 White Spur Lane total nearly 300,000, with 50,000 more lights than were present last year. The process to set up and take down the lights takes weeks of concentrated work, DiSpirito explained. Adding that the effort and pressure has grown overwhelming.

“This has really just taken over my entire life,” DiSpirito said. “Every square inch of this place is crawling with Christmas.”

While addressing the assembled crowd from his roof before Santa arrived to help light up the house, DiSpirito illustrated just how all consuming the lights are to him. When he and his volunteers were not putting the lights up, they were taking them down. When they weren’t taking them down, they were putting them away, packing them up or fixing them.

The tradition was supposed to end after 20 years, but some of the folks who work with DiSpirito to make the lights a reality persuaded him to keep the tradition alive for five more years. DiSpirito agreed to add five more years, but is serious about 2017 being the final year for the lights, he said.

“I’m sad, but at the same time, I am really going to enjoy taking a vacation,” DiSpirito said.

Next year, the house will be totally devoid of Christmas decorations. There won’t even be a candle in the window, DiSpirito told LevittownNow.com.

In addition to thanking all of the volunteers who help make the annual tradition a reality, DiSpirito, an employee of the Neshaminy School District’s facilities department, thanked everyone who came out every year to see the lights on their opening night.

“I have really had a lot of fun,” he said.

Dispirito’s Christmas lights tradition has spurred more than just a tradition at his own home. Mike Rugghia lives across the street from Dispirito with his family. His kids look forward to the big night when they notice DiSpirito putting the lights up. The family has even used the function as an excuse to have an annual party, which will likely continue, Rugghia said.

“I think it is awesome that he has done this for the neighborhood,” started Lisa Page. Page has been coming to the light up for 11 years.

“I am sad to see it go,” she said.

The future of Dispirito’s lights is not clear. The display will not be set up at his home next year, but DiSpirito hinted that the lights may live on at another location.