CANFIELD — Most people don’t like the work it takes to string up Christmas lights at their own house, let alone 50 of your neighbors — oh, and it also has to light up to music.

This is exactly what Mike McAndrew of Canfield takes on each year. Near the Canfield Fairgrounds, McAndrew and his neighbors light up Hood Drive, Fairview Avenue, Maple Street, Indian Lake Boulevard and Holly Street. A few thousand cars make their way up and down those streets each year to see magic.

“I enabled this to occur, but it wasn’t just me,” McAndrew said. “It takes a small army to make this happen each year.”

He started this “hobby gone wild” in 2004, soon after his father died from cancer. He said he needed a distraction, so he threw himself into a hobby. He began by animating lights.

Around 2014, McAndrew started experimenting with wire frame displays. These use 1/4-inch wire that he must cut, bend and weld into different shapes, to which he can then attach lights.

“I happened to get lucky and I found many of the Yellow Duck Park wire frames that are still around,” McAndrew said. “My family would always go see them in the 1980s, so they invoke nostalgia to me.”

His collection includes Mickey Mouse and Pluto, Charlie Brown and Snoopy, a dump truck with toys, snowmen and more. Yellow Duck Park has not had a light display in more than a decade. When he found the old wire frames, McAndrew said he had to replace all the incandescent light bulbs with LEDs. Since then, it’s been his mission to save these pieces from the past.

In 2007, McAndrew reached out to his next-door neighbors to ask if they wanted to join in the light display. They agreed, and pretty soon, other neighbors approached McAndrew to be added to the festivities. This year, 50 houses will be participating. He already has requests from houses on four additional streets to join in.

Putting up lights for 50 houses is a lot of work, so McAndrew starts around Thanksgiving and is putting lights up until Christmas Day. For this reason, he said those who want to see the lights can come by multiple times before Christmas — and it will be different every time. The lights will be up until the end of January.

Twenty-hour days are not uncommon around this time of year for McAndrew, who has a full-time job, then comes home to work on the light displays, which includes setup and programming the displays to music. He said the world of light displays has gotten more technical than he could ever have imagined.

He said one question he gets a lot is how much his electric bill is around the holidays. Believe it or not — and many people don’t — McAndrew said it costs more to run his pool heater in the summer than to light up his neighborhood, because they are all LEDs.

“As odd and as grand as this all is — when you get to see the people who come, and see how it affects them — that’s the real joy in all of this,” McAndrew said. “When a bus from a nursing home comes down my street and I get to see how happy these lights make them, that’s why I do it.”

He said he continues to put up big light displays each year, not because there is much in it for him, but because it brings people together. McAndrew said he’s found this is a great way for people to build community.

He didn’t know many of his neighbors before this. Now, he knows 50 of them. He’s also met people from other states who have big displays.

A couple of additions each year come from children in the community. He holds a coloring contest each year for children 12 and younger. The submissions are posted to Canfield Christmas Light’s Facebook, where the community can vote on favorites. McAndrew makes the top two into wire displays. Last year’s winners, which made their debuts this weekend, were Max from the Grinch and “Santa’s New Ride,” which is a red van with Santa driving and a tree strapped to the roof.

The contest is now open until 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve. McAndrew will post all of the submissions on Facebook on Christmas, then the community has until 11:59 on Dec. 31 to vote and the winners are announced on New Year’s Day.

McAndrew said he thinks northeast Ohio is unique in its amount of extravagant Christmas displays. He knows of 400 Christmas light enthusiasts, but said there are probably more.

Searching for lights

Check out other light enthusiasts in the Mahoning Valley at these locations:

Static displays

• Cole Family Winter Wonderland, 4865 My Way Drive, Canfield

• Johns Family Christmas Display, 6818 Fairview Road, Austintown

• McCoys Christmas Land, 292 Broad St., Struthers

• Jacobs Christmas Wonderland, 785 Wood Ave., Boardman

• Ken and Diane Hodges, 3393 E. Calla Road, Poland

Animated displays

• Worona Family House Display, 6735 Sodom Hutchings Road, Girard,

88.1 FM

• Igo’s Grisworld Light Show, 9093 12th St., North Benton, 107.9 FM

• Youngstown Christmas Lights, 335 S. Belle Vista Ave., Youngstown, 102.5 FM

• Dr. Musser’s Winter Wonderland, 3946 Montercale Drive, Canfield, 107.7 FM

• Ellsworth Holiday Lights, 10827 Berlin Station Road, Canfield, 100.5 FM

• Christmas Lights on Oran Drive, 3033 Oran Dive, Youngstown, 94.5 FM

• Canfield Christmas Lights, 333 Fairview Ave., Canfield, 107.7 FM

Pixel displays

• Christmas at the Crossroads, 251 Forest Hill Drive, Austintown,

107.7 FM

• Warmouth Christmas Light Show, 1841 Lancaster Drive, Youngstown, 93.9 FM

• Old 334 Christmas Lights, 38164 Old State Route 334, Leetonia, 107.7 FM