If you’re a fan of Derek Durkac’s lights display in support of the Edgar Burton Christmas Food Drive, be sure to check it out this year, as it’s your last chance.
Durkac, who’s been called “Sudbury’s Clark Griswold,” is going into retirement.
He explains that the lights display, which involves 50,000 lights in 2024 on his lawn in the Donovan neighbourhood of Sudbury, takes thousands and thousands of hours of work throughout the year, and also involves a power bill of around $700.
Durkac takes holidays each October to put up the lights display, and estimates he takes 20,000 steps per day on his very hilly property.
Although he loves doing it, Durkac said he’s getting up in age, and he’s just “pooped” by the end of the holiday season.
“I’m a little sad about it,” he said. “It makes me think ‘Oh, should I or should I not?’ But no, it’s got to stop sometime.”
In 2023, we did a video of Durkac’s lights display. You can check that out below.
Durkac has been putting on a lights display in his yard, initially in New Sudbury and now in the Donovan, for 20 years, and has been doing it as a fundraiser for the Sudbury Food Bank for the past 13 years.
In 2023, the lights display brought in more than $2,800 and 1,200 food items for the food bank. Durkac said the total since he started his project is more than 11,000 food items and $10,000 in cash donations, which the food bank said equals more than $60,000 since they are able to get discounts from suppliers.
He is dedicating the event’s last year to his late mom, Emily Durkac, dad, Joe Durkac, and sister, Andrea Yuriy Durkac. His mom died suddenly in December 2023.
“It was a sad, sad year,” Durkac said.
In her memory, Durkac has created a light-up nativity scene on his lawn for 2024, as that’s something his mom always wanted him to do. He built part of the scene out of scrap pallets, and purchased some old-style blow mould nativity figures.
So what will he be doing with his lights and decorations? Durkac said he will still be putting up some lights in the future, although nothing like he does now. He’s also saving some of his kids’ favourite decorations for when they own their own homes.
But he’ll be putting the rest up for sale, whether that’s online or possibly through a yard sale after Christmas.
If you’d like to check out Durkac’s 2024 display, his house is located at 48 Severn St. in the Donovan/Cambrian Heights area, off of Burton Avenue. The lights are on 6-10 p.m. Friday to Sunday from Dec. 6 through Dec. 22, as well as Monday, Dec. 23 to Thursday, Dec. 26.
There will be a special appearance from Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus from 7-9 p.m. Dec. 14-15, Dec. 20-21 and Dec. 23. The “Sudbury Grinch” will also be there Dec. 15, 20 and 23.
More information is available through the Durkac Festival of Lights’ Facebook page.
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor.
