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Posted Monday, December 23, 2019

Cameron Kast/cameron@thereflector.com

Drive into downtown La Center and one will notice twinkling lights lining the roadways, businesses decorated in lights of all colors and wreaths on doorsteps to spread Christmas cheer. 

However, off in the distance, one house shines brighter than the rest. With stars atop each and every tree and thousands of lights brightening the dark sky, Bryan Miller brings the Christmas spirit to La Center.

“I started about 20 years ago and it just grew and grew,” he said about the twinkling winter wonderland that is his property. “And after my mom passed, it just got extravagant.”

Miller said each year he makes the lights so extravagant so his mother can see the light show from heaven. 

“That’s why the trees, you notice, the trees are always the most detailed out of everything here,” he said. “I haven’t fallen out and slipped yet. Something keeps me from hitting the ground.”

Each year, Miller strings and puts up his entire light show by hand on a ladder without renting any lifts or equipment. 

“My starting day is usually Halloween,” he said, noting that the lights stay up until New Year’s Eve. “I like to start on Halloween because when the kids go trick-or-treating I can scare them from the tree.” 

From year to year, Miller’s inspiration changes and so do his lights. Drive by his illuminated house next year and you will experience a completely different show. 

“I keep hanging (lights) until I get my inspiration as to where I’m going to put ‘MOM,’” he said, describing how each year he lights up the word “MOM” somewhere on his property and he’s not done hanging lights until it’s up. Miller said every year the word “MOM” gets brand new Christmas lights. 

“All the locals, they know that when they see ‘MOM’ on the roof, I’m done,” he said. 

While the organization of the lights may be different each year, a famous Christmas guest makes sure to visit every year and sits on the property nightly ringing jingle bells and granting the neighborhood with a bellowing “ho ho ho.” 

“I love it seeing the little kids come up with their parents. They’re afraid at first, you know, but then they don’t want to leave,” said John Regal, who was dressed in the iconic Santa red robe and hat. “All it takes is one kid to make it worth it.” 

Each year, as kids come to tell Santa what they want for Christmas, another iconic Christmas figure makes an appearance. 

“Every year, I drive up to the Ape Caves and pick up the real Frosty,” Miller said, explaining how he drives an empty trailer up into the forest and fills it with snow. 

He said he doesn’t go pick Frosty up until he gets a phone call. 

“He likes to come down here. He’s a troublemaker though. One day he’s here and the next, poof, he’s gone,” he said.  

Miller said his Christmas cheer doesn’t go unnoticed in the community as people will donate their Christmas lights to him to see his display grow. Miller said he used to always look forward to his friend Alan Morrison because Morrison would drive up and call Miller “Mr. Christmas.” 

Along with his old friend, Miller said he gets letters from people in the community talking about how much they love his display and how they look forward to it every year. 

“It’s really gratifying and humbling,” he said. “I almost feel a little obligated but not obligated because I’m going to do it anyway. But, it’s nice to know that there’s so many people out there that really enjoy it.”

While the Christmas display lights up the town like a literal Christmas tree, Miller said it’s not all fun. Each day, the breaker under his house flips three to four times and he needs to climb under and flip it back. Along with this, there is the December electric bill. 

“It’s gotten a lot better because it’s all LEDs,” he said. “But it used to jump almost a thousand dollars for one month.” 

One year, Miller ran a generator to keep his display going while the power was out. 

“I fired my generator up and lit up the big tree and I got so many phone calls here from everybody coming into La Center and all they could see is a total blackout except for my house,” he said. 

But to Miller, it’s all worth it when a kid comes by to see Santa and La Center is filled with Christmas cheer. 

“I do it for the kids, it’s all for the kids,” he said while smiling and petting his “reindogs,” Dugan and Holly. “Sometimes I get a headache from smiling so much.”

Message to mom brightens La Center

By Ray Legendre

Published: January 12, 2012

LA CENTER — Bryan Miller strung Christmas lights along almost every inch of his property — from trees several stories high to his front and side yards to his roof — all so his late mother could look down from above and see his house this holiday season.

When he was done, everyone who entered La Center could see his house, too.

Miller’s self-described “secondhand Christmas house” featured an estimated 300,000 lights, including the display’s centerpiece — a message to his dearly departed that said “(Heart) u mom” on his roof. He had a giant red heart in place of the word, with “u” and “mom” underneath.

On Christmas Day, Miller stood on his roof, still as a statue, wearing a Santa costume and standing behind a sleigh. When motorists passed his house, he waved. Seeing their surprised expressions made him laugh, he said.

“The most rewarding thing is when people come by and say ‘thank you,’” the 47-year-old father of four said.

Miller, a construction worker by trade, started putting up lights en masse in 2008. A friend gave him a large amount of lights, which he decided to put up in honor of his mother, Sharon Loomis, who died of a heart attack.

The process turned out to be therapeutic for Miller, who said he questioned why God took his mother when he still needed her.

“She hangs the lights with me,” he said. “That’s mommy time.”

Miller’s lights are a hodgepodge of ones he has purchased on sale and others donated to him by friends and strangers alike.

He starts putting them up in October. He is now in the midst of the three-week process of taking down the lights, most of which he stores in his attic.

His electricity bill shot up to $700 in December, but it was worth it, he said. He also risked his health.

Miller used a 40-foot ladder to hang lights at the top of several trees on his property. The altitude did not bother him, he said. At least one neighbor said she was fearful watching him “shimmy” up the trees.

Miller’s efforts have not gone unnoticed.

He said he has received positive feedback from the community since he started expanding his Christmas presentation. He said he learned just how deeply it resonated this year after someone stole the video camcorder he used to tape the festivities.

A La Center woman left him a card and a new camcorder. She identified herself only as Linda in the card she left. Miller said he believed he had mentioned to the woman his camcorder had been stolen.

“I know I speak for many people in La Center that your efforts bring us great joy,” the woman wrote in her letter.

Her gesture and words touched Miller.

“I knew everybody liked the house but that one there … every once in a while, you get one that makes you say, ‘Wow, that’s why I do it,’” he said.

The feeling he gets from providing joy to others is “more addicting than any drug in this world,” he added.

Miller’s neighbor, Don Soehl, has lived in La Center for 74 years. His vision has faded and soon he fears he will be blind. Yet, he can still see the lights across the street.

Miller’s decorations were “the biggest in town,” he observed.

“I think they’re nice,” Soehl said. “He does put on a little too much, but whatever a guy wants.”

Miller’s lights also lifted the spirits of his next-door neighbor, Mikhaila Bennett.

“I’m kind of a Scrooge sometimes,” Bennett, 30, said. “What he did was really selfless. It really (got) me into Christmas.”

Miller not only brightened her mood but transformed the street. Motorists could see the lights from the bridge near the city’s entrance. Slow-moving cars were a common sight on East Dogwood Avenue last month, she said.

“This little, quiet road turned into the mainstream,” Bennett said. “It was really neat.”

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The Bryan Miller Family receiving a plaque from the city honoring their father & grandfather.

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Fireworks and holiday lights wow visitors at the 2025 La Center Christmas Festival

Bryan Miller honored for years of holiday dedication

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Posted Monday, December 8, 2025 3:26 pm by Norman Helgason

Attendees watch in awe as fireworks burst above 4th Street during the La Center Christmas Festival on Sunday, Dec. 7. The display followed the tree lighting that capped the evening’s events.

Visitors packed 4th Street on Sunday, Dec. 7, for the annual La Center Christmas Festival, filling the road from Aspen Avenue to Cedar Avenue with families, lights and a full slate of holiday events. 

Crowds lined up for many holiday-themed events from ornament decorating, a gingerbread house contest, a nativity, a petting zoo and visits with Santa. The Santa Stride 5K run and walk, which began on 4th Street, kept the street buzzing even before the evening program began.

Just like every year, the 5 p.m. Christmas tree lighting and fireworks ceremony was a major highlight. 

Before the ceremony began this year, Mayor Tom Strobehn took a moment to honor Bryan Miller, a longtime La Center resident known for transforming his house into a beacon of holiday lights each winter. Miller died in August. His family received a dedication award from the La Center Christmas Festival Association.

Strobehn spoke to the crowd about Miller’s role in shaping the spirit of the season for decades.

“I’d like to recognize someone who is no longer with us and whose presence is deeply missed, a person whose generosity ran community deep and whose holiday spirit was like no other,” he said.

Miller lit up his home with increasingly extravagant displays for about 25 years, a tradition he expanded after his mother’s passing. He would begin decorating around Halloween so his house would glow in time for the holidays, remaining lit until New Year’s Eve. Residents often drove by just to take in the sight.

During the interview after the event, Strobehn recalled watching Miller decorate for two decades and said the tribute felt fitting.

“I mean, here’s a man that decorated his house so his mom can see it from heaven and then turned around and dressed up as the Grinch and brought in snow and just entertained all the people for the entire Christmas season, so you know that’s what Christmas is about,” he said.

Mayor Strobehn also spoke words of remembrance for those who died in Pearl Harbor, which took place the same day 84 years ago. 

When the clock hit 5 p.m., the Christmas tree lit up and fireworks cracked over the festival, drawing cheers from the packed street.

“The fireworks are something special, and one of the reasons they’re something special is because we just don’t do them in the county anymore,” he said. “They symbolize several different things, and at Christmas, it’s glory to God … I’m not a deeply religious person, but I have my beliefs and this is one of the ways that we express them here. It turned out amazing again this year.”

Throughout the night, the La Center High School Select Treble Choir and the Brass Ensemble performed Christmas music, their voices and instruments echoing through the festival area. Strobehn said watching local kids grow up and return to sing each winter remains one of his favorite parts.

“You get to see the kids, and what’s great is that. You watch them when they’re a little bit younger and as they grow and turn into young adults, you get to see how their paths in life are going. To see them up there singing and coming together like they are right now, it’s absolutely amazing,” he said.

The festival committee’s weekend work started days earlier with Santa’s house calls on Friday, an annual volunteer project that brings Santa directly to La Center neighborhoods. The mayor said it remains one of the most meaningful efforts of the weekend.

“We’ve had them sprint up to cars, the kids jump up three ft in the air… You just spread the joy and then the families come out, and they give donations if they can afford it,” he said.

Strobehn closed the interview with a holiday message.

“I just hope that people stop arguing, come together and know there are a lot of people out there that don’t have anybody. And so if they know their neighbors or their friends are alone, just reach out and give them a call to check on them, make sure they’re good because holidays are rough on people,” he said.