Christmas for Rent.com, the holiday lighting company stringing 1,200 white lights on Dowagiac’s train station Tuesday for the Nov. 7 Light Up the Depot program, works at it year-around because “we’re not as fast as Santa Claus. We can’t do it all in one night,” jokes Corey Sipes.
Ron Pierson of Grand Blanc, who has been at holiday lighting for 12 years, is making Dowagiac, where his grandfather graduated from high school in the late 1930s, the first of what he expects to become many decorated depots around the country.
While Thomas Edison, the prolific inventor credited with light bulbs, didn’t have light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs at his disposal, Pierson said it was the “Wizard of Menlo Park” who created the first strings of holiday lights to brighten his New Jersey laboratory.
Pierson’s clients include Kellogg’s, with a bit bigger bulb budget of 24,000 to 28,000 lights four stories high.
He is a board member with Battle Creek’s rebounding International Festival of Lights.