The six inflatable Christmas characters that line the front yard must be tied down properly; the lights that cover the fence, roof, railings, doorways, bushes and porch should all be in working order; and the candy canes and gingerbread men that line the driveway and walkway need to be standing straight and tall.

"This is my biggest one yet," Bill said of his 2005 holiday display. "I can't wait until after Christmas this year to go shopping for more decorations."

An aspiring electrical engineer, he has been decorating his Saxonburg Boulevard home in the Glenshaw neighborhood since he was 5 years old, making the display larger and more elaborate each year.

"When he first started, all he decorated were the front bushes because that was all that he could reach," said Bill's grandmother, Linda Hart. "Now, he has so much in that little space."

The front yard is only 13 feet deep and 60 feet wide, and Bill has it packed with holiday lights and figures.

Bill, a ninth-grader at Shaler Area Intermediate School, said he typically starts preparing a plan for the setup in September, designing the layout of the decorations on his computer. Each area of the yard is labeled as a "zone," helping him figure out the proper wiring and placement of extension cords. He runs the extension cords in early October, getting them in place for his usual Nov. 1 start date to deck the halls.

"I usually start decorating when I come home from school and keep going until it gets dark," he said.

The process takes about a month, considering the attention to detail Bill pays to each area of the yard.

"I cover every little inch of the fence and bushes with lights," he said, adding that "there are little things," such as blown-out lights that can complicate the process.

Bill said his display became so large his family had to put in a separate electrical panel last year to avoid blowing out their household circuit breakers.

"Now the lights are connected to a separate circuit and nothing is connected to the house," he said.

He doesn't know how many lights are in his display. "I couldn't even guess," he said. But it has to be in the thousands. He uses lights sets containing 100 bulbs each, and he hung 50 to 75 sets just on the bushes in the front yard, he said.

The display is set on 15 timers. The first "zone" turns on around 5 p.m., and the last section of decorations is glowing by 6 p.m., Bill said.

Some difficulties he has with setting up the lights include climbing onto the roof and the tedious task of trying to cover every part of the yard with some type of ornamentation.

Mrs. Hart, who has raised Bill since he was a baby, said her grandson's passion for electrical work started when he was a toddler -- he wired a fire alarm with his grandfather when he was 3 years old -- and he often pleads with her to buy broken electrical items at garage sales so he can fix them.

"There have been times when cable guys come by the house and I swear half the time he is telling then what to do," she said with a laugh.

Her grandson was almost unable to put up his display last year after the Sept. 17 floods soaked their house and ruined his decorations. The decorations were in the basement and the flood insurance did not cover the cost of replacing them.

But community members and some of Bill's teachers, recognizing the teenager's distress, pulled together and helped him rebuild his collection.

A KDKA news segment on Bill by reporter Dave Crowley also helped with the cost of replacing the lights. During the segment, Mr. Crowley took Mrs. Hart on a $300 shopping spree at Kmart to buy decorations for her grandson.

"[Mr. Crowley] got a hold of me and asked, 'Do you want to go shopping?' " Mrs. Hart said. "I said, 'Yes I do.' "

Cars on Saxonburg Boulevard slow down in front of the house and often stop as people look at the display. Some are on their way to the Hartwood Acres Celebration of Lights not far from the family's home.

"Tour buses on their way to Hartwood Acres stop and say, 'This is where the little boy lives that lost his lights,'" Mrs. Hart said. "He's like a celebrity."

And when it comes to Christmas presents, Mrs. Hart knows her grandson has only one thing on his mind.

"He goes for the electrical stuff," she said, adding that Bill's favorite stores include Home Depot, Lowe's and Sears. "Most kids go to the toy stores, but not him."