jjacob@themeridianstar.com



Laura Grice and her husband, Tim, just love decorating for the holidays. So much so that people from all around Meridian have made driving past their Lockwood Estates home something of a new holiday tradition.

The yard looks like a Christmas theme park, complete with blow-up decorations, some animated, that light up the yard at night. One even has Santa in a helicopter with moving blades. For children, and some adults, it’s sensory overload at its best.

Laura’s mom, Kay Dickson, and her brother and sister-in-law, Pearce and Michelle Dickson, love decorating as well. The three households are such fans of animated blow-up decorations that they have started a friendly competition to see who can get the most blow-ups in their yard for each holiday.

This year, the Grices won the Christmas competition with a whopping 52 blow-ups.

“We’ll see people slowly driving by,” Laura Grice said. “We joked that we should have made a sign that said pull through if you want to.”

The lighted, motorized decorations attract attention, but they also attract a big power bill, Laura said. “I will keep EMEPA in business this season.”

Laura said she has been fascinated with holiday decorations for a long time, and began buying the blow-ups — which can cost anywhere from $30 to $100 — as soon as they became available. She likes them, she said, because they’re much easier to work with than Christmas lights.

Christmas isn’t the only season to see great displays at the Grice household – Laura said she keeps her home decorated inside and out for nine months out of the year, beginning to decorate for Halloween in August, and continuing to decorate for Christmas, Mardi Gras, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and Easter.

This past Halloween, she said she had about 40 blow-ups on display. Her mom, Kay, had even more.

“It’s fun and people seem to enjoy it,” Kay said. “You can hear the children out there squealing happily.”

Kay said the competition is more fun than competitive, and that family members will buy blow-ups for each other’s households, which they purchase both locally and by mail. “We all just like the blow-ups,” she said. “We just try to see who can get the most.”

Because she turns on her blow-ups only for a short time each evening, Kay said her power bill during the holidays is no more than it is during the summer while the air conditioner is running.

Laura said putting up and taking down the blow-ups each holiday has become easier now that her daughters, Kary, 4, and Kennedy, 6, are old enough to want to help. She manages to find space to store them all in her attic.

She said kids seem to like the blow-ups more than adults, who seem to prefer traditional Christmas lights.

“Adults like lights because they’re pretty,” she said. “But kids like the blow-ups. The blow-ups are whimsical, they’re fun, and the kids can see Santa Claus.”





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The Grice home is located in the Lockwood Estates subdivision off of State Blvd. Ext., the Pearce and Michelle Dickson home is located on Confederate Drive, and the Kay Dickson home is located on 41st St. near 23rd Ave.