NCcoast.com has a great look at the Kill Devil Hills Christmas house. As the article states, millions of people from throughout the world have viewed the amazing Christmas display, put up by this Kill Devil Hills family.
Learn why Jim and Ann Poulos create a holiday masterpiece in Kill Devil Hills NC
What brought you to the Outer Banks?
As I remember, in the spring of 1977-78, there was an accident involving a Southern Ice truck and a train. The driver of the ice truck was killed, and I took over the route as an independent contractor. In 1979, I built an ice house in Kill Devil Hills and started Carolina Southern Ice.
What gave you the idea to turn your property into a holiday wonderland?
Ann and I were raised in military families and times were tough for our parents trying to raise their children. The stock market was unheard of. The banks were places to cash payroll checks and provide loans for a home. There were no credit cards; only a paycheck for bills that needed to be paid before the next payday.
If you ran out of money, you couldn’t borrow; you just waited for the next paycheck. There were few birthday presents (there were Happy Birthday wishes), no first day of school clothes (there were school clothes), no fashion clothes (there were just clothes) and very few allowances for washing dishes, ironing and putting up clothes and cleaning house for Mom so she could go out and work to provide for her children. And yet they were not bad times for us. They were good times, because we knew the love was there and the family was a very important part of our life.
Today we go back and remember the importance of Christmas day. First we were taught that Christ was born and then that there is a special man named Santa Claus, and they give their love to the world. Christ, love and giving is what Christmas is all about. Our parents would hang a few lights on the house to show us how special the day was.
When did you put up your first display?
In 1969, Ann and I spent our first Christmas together as a married couple. First on the agenda was to get some lights and decorate our home in Virginia Beach. Each year we added a few more strings of lights until our whole house was lit up in 1975.
We moved to the Outer Banks in 1979, and it was so dark we had to light up the house. When I cut on the lights at our house on Chowan Street in Kill Devil Hills, people could see the glow from the Currituck side of the Wright Memorial Bridge. In 1981 we moved to our present home on Ocean Acres Drive in Kill Devil Hills and began decorating it for the children. Soon we would see cars riding by and our children would hear their friends at school talking about the house.
By 1990 everyone in the county knew about the house and people brought us their decorations they weren’t using anymore and we put them to good use.
How many people have visited your display?
The display has been viewed by millions from all walks of life and from all over the country and the world.
Sharing our display with people blesses us in so many ways.
Leave A Comment