One Hermiston home lit up the night and the votes in the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce’s recent “Lights Before Christmas Tour.”

A photo of the brightly-colored Treat family home, 1381 E. Sandstone Ave., garnered the most online votes in the competition, and Wednesday, chamber officials presented Billy Treat, as well as children Amber, 10, and Joey, 15, with a $100 gift card from the Hermiston Sears, the competition sponsor. As a bonus, the chamber also presented the treats with two boxes of lights to add to the display next year.

“I will find a place for these next year, but I’m running out of room. I might have to start rotating,” Billy Treat said. “I started it for the kids, but when you get people to drive by and they roll the window down and say, Wow,’ that makes it worthwhile.”

Treat said he began decorating the home by outlining the roof. One year, he had extra lights so he strung them across the center, and the display has continued to grow each year. The Treat family holiday doesn’t always stop with lighted decorations, however. In years without snowfall, Billy Treat will drive to the mountains and bring home a truckload of snow to cover the yard.

“That way we always have a white Christmas and a snowball fight,” he said. “One year it hadn’t snowed enough in the mountains and I had to go all the way to Anthony Lakes to get it.”

Treat said he will probably use the gift card to purchase tools. The gift presentation capped the first year for the “Lights Before Christmas Tour,” a program started by the chamber to encourage more community involvement.