THUNDER BAY — Don’t be alarmed if you come across a car decked out in holiday lights driving around town over the next couple of weeks.
It’s just Marcus Roy’s way of celebrating Christmas.
“Once I started driving it around town last weekend, people are honking their horns, shining their lights and waving at me,” Roy said.
Roy has decorated his 2018 Acura TLX from front to rear bumper with 2,000 lights, which makes him easy to spot when he’s on the road.
“It’s a small gesture but the reactions are something that I’ll never forget,” he said.
Roy, who is from Thunder Bay, said that the idea had been in his head for about two months.
“I wanted to spread some Christmas cheer and Christmas joy cheer … just some positive vibes for families and kids,” Roy said.
“There was a lot of planning and a lot of research that went into all of this.”
The two strings of lights are plugged into a power inverter though the Acura’s cigarette lighter.
The car is capable of producing 85 watts of power and each string of lights consumes just five watts, which leaves plenty of battery from the car that will help with running the lights.
The biggest thing that Roy had to make sure of was that the tape that he used to keep the lights on the car wouldn’t damage the Acura, or its paint job.
“That’s the first thing that I would tell people to look up,” Roy said. “There’s certain tapes out there that you don’t want to use, like duct tape, as that will definitely rip up the paint on the car.”
It took about 10 hours for Roy to complete the project on Dec. 1, which was longer than he planned. “I thought it would take three or four hours,” Roy said.
“I was doing it by myself though, and not only do you have to put the tape on the car but you’re also putting the lights on the tape at the same time. You have to have everything all prepared and rip the tape up all into pieces.”
Once he finished setting things up, Roy Facetimed his parents Lucy and Normand, who were both out of town at the time.
“Their reaction was something I’ll never forget,” Roy said. “It was such a wholesome and amazing reaction. They are super excited to see it in person when they get back home this weekend.
“I was a little worried at first about what they would think about what I was doing, but they’re super happy about it.”
Roy’s car will be taking part in the Parade of Lights on Saturday evening and will be visible around Thunder Bay in the lead-up to Christmas.
“I’ll be driving around on the streets most nights so if anyone wants to take any pictures or videos, feel free to do so,” Roy added.