Livermore couple bets on chicken wire magic in a bid to win The Great Christmas Light Fight

Dean and Barbara Paul of Livermore are placing an unlikely material at the center of their bid to win ABC’s The Great Christmas Light Fight: chicken wire.

The longtime decorators, who unveiled their latest large-scale display as part of the show’s newest season, hope the structural flexibility and creative potential of the metal mesh will help them follow in the footsteps of other Livermore champions and secure the series’ $50,000 grand prize.

Their appearance continues a decade-long local tradition of residents becoming standout contenders on The Great Christmas Light Fight, now in its 13th season.

Dean acknowledged the community history that precedes them. 

“It’s really exciting with Livermore having two other contestants on the show and us being the third,” he said. “Livermore’s got kind of a tradition here, going with these lights.”

That legacy includes the Phipps family, who won in 2015 with choreography that featured water cannons and pyrotechnics, and Dave “Deacon Dave” Rezendes, whose Casa del Pomba display amassed 902,120 lights last year — a number large enough to clinch the $50,000 prize and the show’s signature trophy.

Chicken wire becomes the secret weapon on The Great Christmas Light Fight

When asked what differentiates their display from the competition, Dean offered a concise reply:

“Chicken wire.”

For the couple, the decision to incorporate the material began in 2016, when they attempted to construct a towering Christmas tree intended to rise above their roofline. He said,

“We thought, ‘We’ll just put some chicken wire in there, and then we can do it, right?’” 

The idea worked, providing enough stability and shape to form the tree — and again the following year, when the couple transformed their technique into a giant snowman.

Barbara, who participates in local craft shows, brings the visual direction, while Dean handles much of the construction work. She explained,

“He’s kind of the muscle behind it, and I’m the artistic piece.” 

Their collaborative approach evolved further after a vacation to Barcelona, where the city’s mosaic architecture inspired a new challenge. 

“We wanted to make a house that was a mosaic,” Dean recalled. “And we’re like, ‘Well, how are we going to make all kinds of weird shapes of different colors on the house?’ And then we thought, ‘Hey, just line the house with chicken wire.’ And the rest is history once we did that.”

The new methodology allowed them to form unconventional shapes, experiment with texture, and design patterns that would otherwise be impossible with standard frames or off-the-shelf decorations.

Their display, which changes thematically every year, now leans heavily on the adaptability of chicken wire as a foundation for handcrafted figures and illuminated sculptural elements.

The couple’s choreography process involves conceiving themes together, then expanding their ideas through crowd-sourced suggestions. Barbara admitted,

“Because we’re running out of our own ideas.” 

Yet they continue to deliver new concepts annually, influenced by travels, art, and feedback from neighbors. Dean noted that the anticipation among locals has become part of the display’s appeal. 

“I think one of the exciting things about what we do is it’s always a mystery,” he said. “We hear it from friends and neighbors. … It’s like they drive around the corner and it’s, ‘What is it this year?’ Which I think is pretty special.”

That sense of mystery also mirrors the structure of The Great Christmas Light Fight, where families do not learn the outcome of their episode until it airs. Dean said,

“In this day and age, and everybody getting instant gratification and being able to find the answer right away — it’s kind of nice to have a mystery of not knowing whether someone wins or loses until the air date.” 

Their episode — which pits them against families across the country for judges Carter Oosterhouse and Taniya Nayak — evaluates each display on three criteria: use of lights, overall design, and Christmas spirit.

The couple’s chicken wire–driven display competes with decades of holiday creativity from across the U.S., and the jury will determine whether their blend of handmade craft and ambitious scale matches the show’s evolving standards.

Asked what they would do with the grand prize if chosen as winners, Barbara responded with humor rooted in the realities of large-scale decorating: 

“Pay the electric bill, of course.”

Stay tuned for more updates.