As you can imagine, a great deal of planning and work goes into the making of such an extravaganza.

It takes Ocean City workers 42 days to set up all of the displays.

Work begins in October as workers hang the brackets necessary to hold the Boardwalk banners and begin electrical work and construction of the support structures for the light displays, some of which contain 5,000 bulbs.

Fourteen employees from the Ocean City Department of Recreation and Parks and another nine employees from the Town of Ocean City combine to light the town up.

Public Works employees use aerial trucks to install decorations on the light poles from 15th to 33rd streets and another truck is needed to erect the 60-foot Christmas tree at Northside Park.

The majority of the displays must be assembled on-site and it takes three men and their equipment more than 40 hours to install the mammoth light display.

Then there is the 30-foot lighthouse scene at the Inlet, which requires the assistance of 10 men to lift.

Sixteen miles of wire criss-crossing the 10-mile long beach power the lights, which cost the city more than $25,000 in electric bills.

After all of the lights are turned on to start the celebration, they are tested again each morning to make sure they are still working.

THE END

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