Light the Night: Murray Court Visit A Leelanau Christmas Tradition

It’s not that Dale and Sandy Herman aren’t friendly people (they certainly are), but for a variety of reasons, they usually stay within the comfort of their home as throngs of people descend upon their now-famous Suttons Bay-area property during the holidays.

The draw for these visitors is understandable, as the Hermans’ light display on Murray Court has a well-earned reputation as one of the best and most elaborate in the entire region. Hundreds of individual pieces light the night, and the layout is such that families are invited to wander around and fully enjoy this dazzling, luminous wonderland.  

Tens of thousands of people of all ages have come to the Herman residence during the holiday season over the years, some of them traveling considerable distances to enjoy the show. Dale goes out to visit with the masses far more than Sandy, who would rather see those smiling faces from just a bit further away. After all, you never know what will happen.

“A couple years ago, the grandkids were here and we were outside, and some lady came right up to me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. She told me how wonderful she thought everything was and how much it meant to her,” Sandy says. “To this day, my granddaughter will say ‘Remember that lady who kissed you, Grandma? That was kind of weird.’”

The Hermans, both multi-generational Leelanau County residents, have been doing this for more than 40 years. The first display went up not long after they bought their A-frame home from the National Park Service and moved it from Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to their quiet subdivision off M-22.

“Where we brought it from had a nice view of the Manitou Islands,” Dale recalls.

The light display didn’t start out with the desire to be the biggest or the best, or to draw visitors, or to make news. Like countless others, the Hermans merely wanted to put up some Christmas lights, so they did. But their situation eventually began to snowball as they saw more and more items that they simply couldn’t turn down, either in stores, garage sales or (eventually) the internet.

“Originally, you couldn’t really buy a whole lot in Traverse City,” Dale says. “So we’d go to Grand Rapids or someplace, and we’d see something and tell ourselves, ‘We’ve just got to have that one.’”

The display has been roughly the same size for many years now, though the Hermans (who actually manage to store all of their stuff on site) won’t turn down a particularly fun piece if they see it.

The Hermans are both retired now, Sandy from many years as a registered nurse and Dale from the steel industry. This means they have more time to get things ready – they both feel it’s remarkable they were able to put in the hundreds of hours to do so while working full time and raising a family – but it also means they’re getting older while the amount of labor is stable or growing.

“I love it, I really do, but It's just a lot of work,” Sandy says. “And the older we get the more work it is.”

But the joy of doing for the community at large is still there, and those feelings aren’t likely to diminish any time soon.

“You see and hear the kids out there running around, hollering, having fun. We get a lot of enjoyment out of that,” Dale says. “When we have a lot of people out there, every hour or so I’ll take a walk – because things get unplugged – and I hear people commenting how nice it is and how much it means to the community.”

They also maintain a sign-in book, which is always fun to read throughout the season. It’s a great way to keep track of where exactly folks are coming from, the Hermans say.

“We had one this year from England. And we’ve had people from Australia, Germany, Japan. Some are exchange students, others are people who grew up here and are back visiting family," Dale says.

It’s not always fun. There can be some anxiety, especially when the crowds get extra large.

“Sometimes I look out there and I think, oh there's a lot of people out there. And what I always worry about is people who bring their dogs,” Sandy says. “What if someone trip over a dog and the dog bites? I don’t mind the people who carry the dogs, but the big dogs have got to be on a leash.”

And then, of course, there’s the electric bill. But hey…at least that’s auto-pay these days.

“It just goes out, we don’t even have to look at it anymore,” Sandy says.

The Hermans' lights will be up through New Year's Eve. For updates, click here.