While the holidays are over, there is still a spectacular light display that you can visit. This colorful and elaborate display is a fun family activity located at the intersection of 25th SW and Marine View Drive in Burien, on Gregory Heights. It is the home of Ashly B, decorator extraordinaire. Directions are below, and due to wind and storms, she’s leaving the display up from 5 pm to 9 pm daily until mid-January.

I stopped by to hear what it is like to host a mega display of lights. Here are a few highlights from our interview:

Q. How many inflatables are set up?
A.  I don’t know how many inflatables I have. At one point, I counted 87, but I took some down for repairs and also bought a few more from Amazon and Home Depot

Q. Is that a skeleton I see with a Christmas hat right at the front of your place?
A. Yes, I host displays at Christmas, Halloween, July 4, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, and more. The 20-foot tall skeleton on the northeast corner of my driveway is too big to move, so I just leave it and put a Santa hat on its head. I also leave up some other Halloween decorations, a giant Thanksgiving Turkey, and my Seahawks lights (if you didn’t know Ashly was a Hawks fan before you met her, you’d sure know after).

Q. How much electricity do your displays use? Do you ever have issues with overloading your circuits?
A. I run my displays from 5 to 9 pm. I make sure not to have any other major appliances going during that time. When I moved here in 2012, I knew I wanted a lot of lights. So I had a very large circuit breaker installed before I moved in. But yes, there are some times I’ve overloaded the circuits. I can’t answer your first question because I don’t look at my electricity bill;it is on autopay. It costs a lot though.

Q. What’s your favorite display item?
A. I like the Reindeer with legs that form an arch over my garage door.  (The Reindeer is at least 20 feet high and 20 feet wide).

Giant Reindeer towers of the garage door. Photo Courtesy of Stuart Jenner.

Q. What has the impact of the recent storms been on your displays?
A. My biggest Santa deflated, the wind was just too much. But I do have another Santa on order (note: this Santa will join at least 10 other Santas on display). A lot of rain gets into some of the inflatables. I have to squeeze out the water out of some of the inflatables so they don’t topple over. Also, I’ve had some inflatables get a lot of needles on them.  But I’ve never had an inflatable blow into a neighbor’s yard. Yet.

Q. What advice do you have for anyone visiting?
A. I request visitors park along Marine View Drive. Please don’t drive down the street because it curves, is quite narrow, and there’s no real place to turn around. My neighbors don’t mind the display, but please be considerate of them when visiting.  The best parking on Marine View Drive is north / east, before you get to the street. Watch out for drainage ditches on the sides of the road. People are welcome to walk up my driveway, but please don’t walk on the side paths around the house.

Q. What else does it take to keep a display like this going?
A. I had someone ask once, “How can I support your display?” So I set up a Venmo account. The sign with a QR code is in the front area (though it is hard to find, there are several inflatables that block the view unless you’re looking directly at the sign).

Besides removing rain from the inflatables, I have to regularly replace air pumps that wear out, I swap out light strings that are inside many of the inflatables, I patch holes, and I do have to replace inflatables from time to time. I replaced 15 this year.  Storing is hard, and my garage is full in the off-seasons.

Regular maintenance: Removing water from the nose of an inflatable, the water was pulling down the head. Photo courtesy of Stuart Jenner

Putting up the Christmas display takes a lot of time. I start the day after Halloween.

Q. Anything else you’d like visitors to know?
A.  Christmas is my favorite time of the year. Please stop by and enjoy!

Thank you to Ashly for taking your time to share this with us and your wonderful Christmas display!

📍 Directions:
A friend of Ashly’s created a location on Google Maps. Here’s a screen shot showing the location in Google Maps from a mobile device:

Most people will approach by driving on 160th heading west. At the T Intersection of 160th and 19th SW, turn right. Then there are two quick turns: left and left.  Take the first left on SW 159th street. Next go left on 21st   Ave SW. This road turns becomes Marine View Drive at 164th. The road bends. I suggest parking on either side of Marine View Drive before you get to 25th Ave SW, the street you’ll be walking down.  Please do not park or drive on 25th Ave SW. As mentioned, it is a curvy narrow street with no turnaround. Backing up in the dark on a curve is stressful and dangerous.

In Google maps, an address to use is  16601 Marine View Drive SW Burien WA. Look at the street view photo. Along Marine View Drive, there’s a concrete square area, maybe used to be a bus stop, then a group of mail boxes, then the 25th Ave SW street sign with “Dead End” and “Labrador” (in honor of former dogs that lived in the area). Park on either side of the road, there’s easier parking before 25th Ave SW than after.

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