Paul Schaff is known as the Clark Griswold of Mandan

In case you don't know who Clark Griswold ishe's the character actor Chevy Chase plays in the movie "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." The character puts up so many lights on his house that it almost blinds the neighbors

But now, Paul says after thirty years of extensive holiday decorating, it's time to put the large garland candy canes away for good.

(Paul Schaff, Mandan Homeowner) "Before Christmas I'm going to be seventy years old and when you get to be my age, it's gets to be pretty hard work." Decorating 36 trees around the yard and two retaining walls is getting to be too much for Paul Schaff. He says putting up the big stuff is history..

(Paul Schaff, Mandan Homeowner) "You just think about it. If you work about eleven or twelve hours a day for three weeks, six days a week, you'll find out that's quite a bit of work." For the last almost thirty years, Paul has started decorating his home in mid-October for Christmas. It was quite a site to see..

(Paul Schaff, Mandan Homeowner) "I always said I made a lot of people happy by doing it. You'd be surprised by how many people talk about this or come up here. An older lady told me one time that everytime they got company, they asked to see my lights. And she said seven times one Christmas they drove up here just to see my lights to show people the lights up. I get a lot of people excited about that." Paul says next Christmas he still plans to put up some lights...but the Christmas display at 2200 Westview Place won't even be close to what it used to be..

(Paul Schaff, Mandan Homeowner) "Now I had in excess of 50,000 lights up. It's going to be a lot less." Today Paul's son-in-law, Clare, and his grandson, Cole, help him take down the large displays, including the garland candy canes once displayed by the city of Bismarck . (Paul Schaff, Mandan Homeowner) "Oh I'm gonna miss it. There's not doubt about it." But Paul says he feels good about his decision to cut back in holiday decorating. He even took a few more pictures this past Christmas to remember the magnificent display.

For the record, Paul says he didn't have the same electrical problems as Clark Griswold. He had a timer set for all of the 50-thousand lights to go off at the same time. watch the video | save this article / add to your favorites list