New York Teen Creates Dazzling Holiday Lights Display in Front of His Home Using Discarded Old Decorations
A 19-year-old kid from New York has taken sustainability to new heights this holiday season. Andrew Reid lit up his neighborhood with a grand display of holiday lights recycled out of dumped items at his home in East Northport, Long Island. The New York teenager’s holiday light display featured 100,00 lights and about 500 decorations in contrast to the only 150 decorations in 2023, per News 12 Long Island. Even Reid’s local community joined in for the cause and donated lights to complete his “Mistfit Island Christmas Spectacular.”
He said he took inspiration from the Rudolph movie which showcased misfit toys, thus, lighting up the idea of a "Mistfit" tree. His grand display of lights is backed by a cause as it aims to raise funds for the Ronald McDonald House which provides shelter to children victims of pediatric cancer and other illnesses. They possess family rooms at the pediatric wings of NYC Health and Hospitals in King County and Elmhurst allowing caregivers of the young victims to prioritize their health and well-being. Determined to add value to the world, Reid hinted that he loves helping people and is training to be a paramedic.
“I'm going to school to be a paramedic so I want to help people out as much as I can,” he quipped, adding that making people happy is his forte. “everyone knows that, so I was like – why not do a display and raise money for kids with cancer as well,” the teenager shared. He had already collected $400 ever since his grand holiday lighting opened at the top of December and is open to the public from 5:30 p.m. to 9 pm every night. Meanwhile, Reid is a student at the Nassau Community College and has been building the lighting display since August this year.
The dazzling holiday lighting is built out of refurbished decorations and covers every corner of his home along with Santa Claus and snowmen figures. Reid claimed to have taught himself how electricity works to fix the dumped decorations beside his home he and his family discovered during the pandemic. This began an annual tradition for the Reid family and has been doing it for the past four years, per the New York Post. “I saw this polar bear. I couldn’t pass up on it. I took it home, tinkered around with it, was able to fix it up and it became easy after that,” he said.
He self-learned all the technicalities of electrical wiring, including the positive, negative, and neutral functions on them. Reid added, “Now, just seeing it, I know the problem with these wires: what not to touch ...It just comes easy to me.” The 19-year-old also encouraged others to be involved in his project with minor contributions like donating ornaments to his "Misfit Tree." “Any time that I really had I usually try to fix things up. It’s kind of my downtime, my chill moment,” Reid explained. Inviting donations, Reid told Fox 5 New York that anyone wanting to bring their Christmas tree ornaments is welcome to and could adorn his tree with it.