Much like the highly devoted fictional father Clark Griswold, Shane Kampeter sees things through for his family.
When his oldest daughter, Gabrielle, was about 5 years old, he promised to add one new holiday decoration to their already illuminated home's outdoor Christmas display every year. The first thing was a train blow-up decoration about 10 years ago.
"Now that we have three kids, we get to add a few things every year, and it is just going to keep getting bigger until I'm not for sure what we are going to do," the wildlife biologist for the Missouri National Guard said with laughter. "But that is how we became known as the Clark Griswold house."
As a result, the Kampeter home on Elmerine Avenue has secured two awards in the annual Home Decorating Contest, including the appropriate Clark Griswold Mayor's Award last year. With three more additions this year, they hope to secure another win in the contest, with first place winners announced in the Christmas Eve issue of the News Tribune.
Christmas has always been a big deal in Shane's family. As a child growing up in Jefferson City, his parents always used lots of lights to illuminate their holiday spirit throughout the neighborhood. From television classics to "101 Dalmatians," the Kampeters accentuated their home with lovable Christmas scenes for passersby.
"We also built our own snowmen, and my mom would paint them all. We would have 20 of them and put them up in the trees and on the roof. We had ones with kites that would 'fly down,' and others that were ice skating," Shane said. "The snowmen is what we usually did and one of my favorites."
Now, Shane and Annie, his wife and registered nurse, have carried on those holiday decorating traditions in their own home. They started with lots of lights, much like his parents' home, which previously won first place in the contest's Norman Rockwell category for their city ward.
"We just outlined the roof, windows and stuff like that when we first lived at the top of the street," Shane said, noting they have lived on Elmerine Avenue for nine years now. "Then, we started doing the yard, lining up and down the whole house. We mainly do all white lights in the yard and on the house and do have a few multicolored ones, a dogwood tree and bushes."
However, the lights are ample with 10,000 bulbs in one of the larger trees alone, Shane said. The lined house is accentuated with multiple other decorations including four Christmas trees, two reindeer, four large blow-ups like the fuzzy teddy bear and 11 penguins, the latter of which is Shane's favorite.
"I love the penguin village, and it has an igloo," he said. "My oldest loves the blow-ups."
Sadly, Gabrielle's train blow-up was unable to be used this year and retired. However, the family decided to add three more items - three elves in the Rudolph village, a candy cane pole and outlining the roof in the same warm white lights used throughout the majority of the display.
"They wanted to have me line the roof, much like we do the front of the house. But I do have to say no on some things, like lining the whole roof this year. We don't do everything at one time, because we want to add onto it," Shane said with a laugh. "But we choose what to add each year as a family."
The Kampeters also set up the entire display as a family, traditionally beginning the Friday after Thanksgiving.
"We used to get done the day after Thanksgiving, too, but now it takes a bit longer, Shane said with laughter, noting this year's display took about three days to complete. To commemorate this feat, they also held a lighting ceremony for the first time this year.
"This year, it was just immediate families that came over, but next year, we want to have some of our friends and neighbors come. We got together, talked, ate pizza and did the lighting, much like Clark Griswold," Shane said with a smile. "However, we were going to do the 'drumroll' but my daughter wanted to do music. We put some music on, counted down and lit it up. Some of our neighbors were sitting on their front porch or could see it in their house. It was bright, so they came out and looked at it."
Much like Clark Griswold's display in the holiday movie classic, the Kampeter's home is strictly lights and decor - no music.
"We like all our lights to just be on. People ask when are you going to go to music. I say never. Those are cool, but we like to be more like Clark Griswold - lit up the whole time so you can see all the lights."
Friends, family, neighbors and strangers adore the Kampeters' home Christmas display, driving by, stopping to take pictures and even capturing selfies under the tree or by one of the displays. In fact, Shane and Annie's children, including 9-year-old Katherine and 7-year-old Samuel, also love it and want to make sure it is perfect each night during the season.
"They pretend they drive by to see the display. They will get on the street and go past to see all of it. My son does it every night to make sure it is working," Shane said.
Their love of Christmas is shared in the Elmerine Avenue neighborhood, with other homes earning awards in the annual contest.
"Elmerine is a huge neighborhood that loves to do this. The whole street enjoys Christmas and all the holidays, just like us," he said.