Drive around Whidbey Island this time of the year and even the longest road without a street light will be as bright as the North Star.

During this, the darkest part of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the powerful force of the holiday spirit moves people to spend hours and days in their front yards to make the holiday season a lot brighter for themselves and passersby.

On South Whidbey, how islanders light their homes for the holidays can range from subtle to bordering on obsessive. An example of the latter can be seen at the home of Jerry and Lois Beck on Robin Lane in Clinton. There, the Becks have put up about 30,000 lights and a number of holiday-themed scenes in a drive-thru display. Locals are invited to take the circular drive around the Beck home between 6 and 9 p.m. every evening through Dec. 31. The family also has a low-powered radio broadcast playing at the home, which drivers can tune into and listen to holiday tunes while driving past the lights.

More low key are annual light displays like the one put up by Dan and Marie Poolman in Langley.

For the past five years, the couple has been setting up their colorful display of sparkling lights at their Langley home at the corner of Third and Park.

“I don’t do much, he’s the light technician,” Marie Poolman said.

Each year the project has grown, and this year it became more intricate to match Dan’s landscaping work that was done throughout the year.

“It’s different each year, but this year I had more landscaping to cover,” he said.

And that he did. Like other twinkling scenes repeated all over Whidbey, the Poolmans covered every possible tree, bush, railing, roof top, trellis and trimmed each walkway. Their back yard is dotted with illuminated reindeer.

Poolman said kids particularly enjoy their display, so each year’s effort and planning is worthwhile.

Ben and Karen Bess get a kick out of just watching people drive by their home on Sleeper Road outside Oak Harbor, slow down to gawk, then come back the other way after turning around.

What stops them is the Bess’ front yard, which contains thousands of colorful lights creatively displayed and a playful assortment of enormous blow-up season characters.

The couple devotes two weeks of work to putting the display up each year, and another two weeks storing it away after New Year’s Day.

“It’s a labor of love,” said Karen Bess. “The neighbors look forward to it every year.”

Ben Bess jokes that the couple spends much of their time hunting down burned out bulbs and replacing them, as they were doing one recent evening despite heavy rain and wind.

On South Whidbey, drive along Honeymoon Bay Road, Humphrey Road, along Highway 525, through Maxwelton, along Main Street Freeland, past Useless Bay and you’ll mistake the drive for the bright lights of the city of Oak Harbor.

On the north end of the island, Oak Harbor residents are just as serious about their lights. In fact, this year as in the past, locals took a bus tour of holiday lights. On the Oak Harbor Senior Center “mystery light tour,” which was held last Tuesday, Volunteer bus driver Janis Powell is north Whidbey’s most knowledgeable source on the locations of impressive Christmas displays.

Powell said the first stop on the tour is usually the Rodgers house on SE Sixth Avenue in Oak Harbor, which has dozens of brightly painted plywood cutout figures of seasonal characters — everything from penguins, polar bears and elves to camels, shepherds, manger scenes, choo-choo trains and Santa on the roof — all illuminated by three towering carousels of multi-colored lights.

When light-seeing Powell recommends driving around city residential areas. But, she said, don’t forget the countryside.

“I try to find stuff people don’t normally see,” she said.

One of her spectacular rural recommendations is the home of Jay and Christie Hale, easily observed from Reservation Road outside Oak Harbor.

“Every inch of their yards is lights,” Powell said. “Just an amazing amount of lights, everywhere you can put a light, they did.”

She estimates 15 to 20 tall trees are all wrapped in lights, which is particularly impressive.

While there’s no tour bus on South Whidbey, it’s still easy to create a personal tour. After all, some of the light displays are hard to miss. Drive past 6535 Humphrey Road and see a twinkling assortment of lights cascading off the roof and onto flower beds. Santa and his reindeer pitter patter on the roof and angels tip-toe through the tulip beds.

Huge inflatable reindeer and Santas have been spotted all over Whidbey due to apparent runs to Wal-Mart. The largest assortment of inflatables, one that returns every holiday season, can be seen along Highway 525 between Main Street and Scott Road.

For those looking for a high density of light displays, drives through Scatchet Head, the Holmes Harbor area, along East Harbor Road and through downtown Langley can be a thrill. Several homes in the Mutiny Bay area are also lit up as well.

Record reporter Cynthia Woolbright contributed to this story.