Popular Christmas lights display is being lit up the final time this year

A popular Christmas lights display in Sudbury that raises money for the local food bank will be lit up for one final season this year.

Derek Durkac has been decorating his front yard for 20 years with Christmas lights and wooden displays, adding onto it each season until reaching a total of 50,000 lights this year. 

"Started off with just a few lights around the eavestrough, had one reindeer and a sled in the front lawn," explained Durkac.

"And then it just grew from there."

In addition to the thousands of lights, he has also bought decorations and made multiple wooden characters for the display. They include various characters from Star Wars and the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer movie, two of Durkac's favourites. 

Calling it the Durkac Festival of Lights, his holiday display has not only grown in size but in popularity over the years, bringing thousands of visitors to the property to view the lights.

"Every year it grows and grows. We get a lot of kids and a lot of people," said Durkac. 

"It gets pretty busy on the streets, especially when Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus and the Sudbury Grinch come."

Starting December 6, Durkac will run the display Fridays to Sundays from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., as well as from December 24 to the 26 before shutting it down for the year.

Due to its growing popularity, in 2011 Durkac decided to start collecting food and monetary donations from visitors to the display for the Sudbury Food Bank and the Edgar Burton Sudbury Christmas Food Drive.

At the bottom of his driveway he has set up a food donation box and a locked cash box, as well as a QR code to donate directly to the Sudbury Food Bank.

"That's one thing that touched my heart is helping out the community where people come and see the lights and they could donate non-perishable foods and cash donations," said Durkac.

"And in those thirteen years I collected over 11,000 food items and over $10,000 in cash donations."

He's already off to a good start for donations this year. Grocery store chain Metro is recognizing Durkac for his charitable efforts, naming him a "Metro Merrymaker" this year and donating 4,000 non-perishable foods to the Edgar Burton Sudbury Food Drive.

Durkac says he starts setting up the lights display on October 1, using two weeks of vacation from work to do so. With the time and energy it takes to set up and maintain, he has decided that this will be the final year for the campaign.

"It's a lot of work…when I'm out there working from 8:00 in the morning until 5 or 6 at night, I'm [taking] at least 20,000 steps and walking around," Durkac explained. 

"And by the end of the year, I'm exhausted."

He says he is proud of the amount of donations collected for the food bank and the joy the lights display has brought to the community.

"Once it's all set up and then you have the kids and the adults coming and that's what brings joy to me, to see joy in them at Christmas time," he said.

"Even though some people do have some rough times during Christmas, they come to the Christmas display and it brings back their childhood memories as well, the adults."

The Durkac Festival of Lights is located at 48 Severn Street in Greater Sudbury.