Hercules Home's Holiday Lights Becomes Yearly Tradition That Keeps Growing

HERCULES (KPIX 5) -- A family in Hercules transforms their home every year into a magical winter wonderland with somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 lights along with hundreds of decorations.

Since they started six years ago, all of their neighbors on the block have joined in to decorate Onyx Court.

"Every year it just gets more and more and more, bigger and bigger," says Bernardo Dunn. He and his wife, Tracy Palma, say they've both loved Christmas since they were little. Once they got married, decorating for the holidays became something they really enjoyed doing together.

For Haley Hold and her two-year-old daughter, Stella Mae, visiting the Palma Dunn house has become an annual tradition.

"I think this year walking down the path was especially special for her, and then making Santa dance," said Hold as she walked up to the Santa figurine and clapped to get it to start moving while watching her daughter's face. "She's just in awe!"

"We see the kids, of course. They smile. They appreciate it, and it makes us feel good, and especially with everything going on right now," said Dunn.

Denise Domich brought her family over from Pinole to see the house after hearing about it on Instagram. "Seeing Christmas magic through the eyes of a child, is like, indescribable. I mean you can see it on his face, it just brings a lot of joy," said Denise as she watched her son count some of the large lights around the driveway.

"If there's a missing spot that's not lit up, we are going to do that next year for sure. That's how it keeps getting bigger and bigger," said Palma, who added she thinks the roof looks dark - only outlined in lights - and thinks next year they'll string lights across the entire thing.

When it comes to their electric bill this year, "We went a little bigger this year, so we're kind of scared to see what the bill is going to be in December," said Dunn. "There is going to be a comma in that number."

"Definitely worth it," he added.

The Palma Dunn's say they buy most of their decorations on after-Christmas sales but have spent tens of thousands of dollars over the years.

They have a storage unit where they keep all of the decorations and say it takes almost three weeks to set it all up.

The home is at 145 Onyx Court in Hercules and the lights will be up until January 7.