Owner of famous Christmas truck in Colorado's mountain community looking for apprentice
If you've seen Jim Ullrich's light display across his old truck for the holidays, you understand better than we could ever try to describe to you how special the setup is. That being said, it's our job to try.
The custom Christmas decorations have been going up for almost a decade at this point, and have only evolved to become more and more complex, both in presentation and setup.
Light Engineer Jim Ullrich said the inspiration for the truck came out of basically nothing.
"(It) just sat here for a long time without anything happening to it and so I started taping these string lights on," Ullrich said, laughing. "I would turn them on, I would come home at 1-2 o'clock and it wouldn't matter what kinda day I had, I would have a laugh, I enjoyed it."
The truck is decked out with multicolored light strings that are all programmed to dance and flash along with Christmas music, which viewers can listen to simply by tuning their radios to a custom frequency. Krista Cook-Urrlrich, Jim's supportive wife, said it's become quite the attraction.
"There are nights when we can't get in the driveway because there are too many cars lined up to see it," Cook-Ullrich said. "Years ago we had the music up too loud and the neighbor across the street had to come over 'JEFF! TURN YOUR MUSIC DOWN,'"
"Now, they love it, we get gifts in our mailbox and notes of thanks and how much they enjoy it, and people who have lived here as long as we have now have their grandkids over."
While this labor of love will continue, Ullrich is considering scaling back some of the displays simply because of the amount of work it takes to put together and get running each year. "It has been a lot and lot of time," Ullrich said. "I usually spend from October to November setting it up."
This is why both Krista and Jim believe having someone interested on taking on some of that craft and learning alongside him would be a blessing to keep the truck light and dancing for years to come at full power.
"If I had some little apprentice, I could show them..." Ullrich said, thoughtfully.
The display can be found in Summit Cove on Vail Circle, near Keystone.