You know Christmas is approaching when the Thanksgiving flag is replaced by Santa at the Mentzer's house in Southwest Reno. Stan and Teresa have been setting up lights on their Alpine Court home all day Friday.
"I'll put up 43 strands this year," said Stan.
That's a lot of lights. In fact, it'll take them about three days to install all of them.
"It's more than worth it," said Stan.
Teresa, Stan, and their neighbors have been dazzling Northern Nevadans with their lights for nearly three decades.
"It's our 28th year doing this," said Teresa. "We love it, the only thing is, I was telling my husband is that we're getting a little old for this."
But not everybody is as prepared as the Mentzers.
"A lot of people are coming in," said Randy Dugan at Home Depot in South Reno. "They're prepping for Christmas."
Friday, customers were greeted with a smile and ugly Christmas sweaters.
"It's grabbing a lot of attention today," said Jerrad Kenney, another employee at the store. "It's making it a lot of fun."
Kenney, by the way, was wearing a blue and white sweater, knitted with reindeer. And the thing lights up. The store saw almost three times as many people today as a normal day.
Christmas items were flying off the shelves.
"They're getting their lights," said Dugan. "They're getting their trees, their decorations."
And if you were curious, Randy was wearing a navy blue, cat holiday sweater.
"Believe it or not, this is my favorite sweater."
Okay, Randy. We believe you.
