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‘Christmas House’ in Phoenix Won’t Have Lights This Year… But There’s a Twist

November 28, 2017
Staff

WRITER

Lee and Patricia Sepanek have been decorating their Phoenix home with a stunning display of Christmas lights for more than three decades. But not this year … after objections from new neighbors, city officials wanted the couple to make some big changes, so the Sepaneks are taking a break.

Lee Sepanek joined Glenn on today’s show to talk about the ridiculous hoops he says officials wanted him to jump through in order to maintain his holiday traditions of lavishly decorating his home and providing cocoa for visitors.

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This article provided courtesy of TheBlaze.

GLENN: I read a story a couple weeks ago about a guy who has put Christmas lights up on his home for 30 years. He's decorated his home in Arizona. And he spends like three months decorating and getting everything -- getting everything right.

Nobody has ever complained in his neighborhood. Somebody moved, and then a new family moved in. And they claimed to the city and said that, you know, the traffic is just horrible.

And so the city came in and said, "You have to stop this." Because he was violating code because he was selling hot chocolate to try to pay for, you know, the -- the work of putting the lights up, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. He said, "I'll give it away." They said, "You can't even do that." So he stopped decorating, for the first time in 30 years. His name is Lee steponic. (?) and Lee is with us now. Hello, Lee, how are you?

LEE: Good. How are you, Glenn?

GLENN: So tell me what the reaction has been in your neighborhood.

LEE: Oh, the neighborhood -- once they found out what was going on, just totally upset. I still have cars driving by, just to see the dark house.

(chuckling)

LEE: But, of course, we turned the tables on the city a little bit because we took all of my lights and we decorated ten homes on my street.

GLENN: Wow. Wow.

LEE: Wow and so other neighbors have joined in. (?) 15 houses that are now decorated. And there's only about three that are not.

GLENN: And are one of those three the one that complained? Do you know who complained?

LEE: Yes, I know.

GLENN: And did they talk to you about it? Because I have to be honest with you, Lee. I lived in Connecticut, and there was a house on my street. And there was only one way to get to my house. (?) I loved it. I loved it. And became friends with him and everything else. He would spend three, four months putting them up and taking them down. And he loved it. And people would come from all over. I, on the other hand, was the neighbor that was just trying to get home, hated the traffic, but I lived with it. Can you understand why someone would be like, "This is ridiculous on my street?"

LEE: Well, I understood that completely. And I've always said for years, you know, I've lived in this home on this street since 1973. So basically what had happened is I've outlived the neighbors. Because the people that were living here when I moved in have passed away or moved away. So the ones (?) not even a year ago. I looked up the tax records and they moved in February of 2016. So the first experience they (?) caused them to complain to the city. But I've since learned from their immediate neighbors that they're the type that complain about everything. They actually went so far to ask one of their neighbors to cut down a tree on their property because some of their leaves were blowing into their yard.

GLENN: Wow. Okay.

LEE: Okay. You know the kind we're talking about?

GLENN: Yeah, I do. I've had those kinds of neighbors. And, you know, what solves that is if you just mysteriously find bamboo planted somewhere no one else yard. Anyway, that's a different story.

LEE: I offered to -- it was a matter of blocked driveways. I offered (?) please do not block this driveway. I was going to put that at the leading edge of everyone's driveway up and down my street. And the city official from (?) because it's a right of way. And I was like, but there's no sidewalks.

So where am I impeding people's natural flow if there's no sidewalks in

GLENN: So what are you going to do now, lee? I'm just looking -- (?), I mean, what are you paying your power bill?

LEE: My power bill run me about 1500 a year.

GLENN: I mean, it's quite the show.

So what are you going to do? You said you're not going to do it this year, but you said you are going to do it next year.

LEE: The way (?) cocoa being offered for donation.

So they've backed off on that. Due to -- you know, pushback from the neighborhood, from legal. Basically, I got representation -- because I have a -- an individual host has been coming here for years, and his children are little. And when he found out it wasn't going to do this anymore. He got all up in arms and contacted a whole bunch of people that he knew that came to my -- to my support. And have been great about it. And our own district six councilman, as soon as he heard about this, he went to the city and started working on my behalf to get this overturned.

So as it looks right now, it looks pretty good. We'll probably do it again next year.

GLENN: So you're -- you also started a GoFundMe page. And you started that because you were -- you were taking the profits of the hot cocoa and, you know -- that allowed you to do this and put the lights and buy new stuff, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And the city won't let you do that because you don't have a license. So now you're trying to raise the money through GoFundMe?

LEE: That's correct, yeah. So what I used to get -- and I didn't make that. I was selling a cup of cocoa for a dollar.

GLENN: Right.

LEE: So it probably cost me 50 cents with the lid, the cup, the powder (?) it's not like I made a lot -- the show never -- never made a profit. Okay?

But it helped take the sting out of the costs.

GLENN: The -- I'm seeing the video. There's a -- it looks like, almost like a -- I don't know, a fair or something.

LEE: Yeah, that's one of my decorated windows. I have six of them. That's the reason why people stop, get out of their car, and come to -- my windows rival Macy's.

GLENN: Did you build this? Because I'm looking at this and I can't -- it looks like a legitimate fair. So did you make all of that?

LEE: No. Over the -- I've been collecting stuff for over 40 years. And, you know, I think the window you have there, that's the combination with the train --

GLENN: Yeah.

LEE: That's actually my kitchen window. And everyone has done differently. I don't think I even sent you the one. I could send you the one -- the real fair.

GLENN: Like the tee cup. The tee cup thing. (?)

LEE: Right. Right.

GLENN: Was there.

STU: I can't even bring myself to go to the gym for 15 minutes. You're spending nine to ten hours a day for three months. So this begins in, what? August?

LEE: September. This (?) the third week of September. Takes about two weeks to go through the lights and fix them and get them ready to go. And then we start beginning -- in fact, I had the lights here. We had been working on it for two weeks when I met with the city. And I hadn't started to decorate yet. So then after meeting with them, I decided, they were just making it too -- they can't directly tell me I cannot put up my lights. But if you take and make it difficult all the way around in every other aspect, you discourage people from doing so. And that's what they tried to do.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: Yep.

GLENN: So how old a man are you, Lee.

LEE: I'm 66 years old.

GLENN: And when you say (?)

LEE: I have a gentleman who volunteers his time and helps and then my wife. So the three of us.

GLENN: Has your wife ever said, okay. Lee, enough.

LEE: Oh, yeah, that -- every year.

GLENN: Okay. Yeah, right.

LEE: You have to understand, we go out every night from Thanksgiving to New Year's, greet people, serve up cookies or cocoa. Only nights we are not out there is if it's pouring down rain, and I'll turn the lights (?)

GLENN: I can't do you do it, Lee?

LEE: It's just something I've been doing since I was ten years old. (?) started doing it when I was a kid. Living with my parents. And moved to Phoenix in '73. Didn't do it for a number of years, until my youngest was born. And we would go around looking (?) he started saying, well, we don't have any on our house, why can't we do it on our house? So we started doing it. And started out small. And it's grown into what it is today.

STU: I'm fascinated about this. So September, October, November is setup. Then through November and (?) through January, you're doing -- you're out there working it every day with the lights. And then there's a teardown process. How long does the teardown take?

LEE: Usually a month. (?) a month and a half to take it down.

STU: I mean, that is legitimately half of your year.

LEE: Yes.

STU: That's an incredible amount of dedication. I mean, I like Christmas.

GLENN: See, I don't think I would ever take them down, Lee.

STU: Yeah. I think you would just leave them down.

GLENN: (?) I don't care.

LEE: Yeah. You know what, I kind of hate that. (?) you see eagle lights hanging off --

GLENN: I'm not saying it's a good look.

STU: You just tarp the whole house. (?) put a big tarp on top of it, you move somewhere else --

GLENN: Put camouflage negative over the house.

LEE: You know, that would be great. A lot of this stuff is made out of plastic. And our son ruins that. (?) it would be no good anyway.

GLENN: Yeah. All right. Lee, best of luck to you. Do you have the address for the -- Stu, do you happen to have the GoFundMe page?

STU: I do. (?) it says, help relight Christmas house is where you can go to find it. It's a great goal. It will put you back to work, lee. I hope you're prepared for that.

LEE: That's okay. You know, I look forward to it every year. People don't realize. This is a year-round thing for me. Because if I'm not putting it up or (?) I'm planning.

GLENN: God bless you. God bless your wife, lee.

LEE: Yes. I know, yeah.

GLENN: God bless you.

STU: Lee soponic is the guy who is doing the Christmas display in Phoenix. It's GoFundMe.com. (?) I had one string of lights that I had to hang on the back porch of our house. And I put it up in like October of I guess 2015. And it came down last summer. So it was up -- I kept it up through the whole year.

GLENN: Yeah, good.

STU: And it lasted until they just started (?) they physically didn't work anymore.

GLENN: Yeah, you're a class act all the way.

STU: That's me.

GLENN: So I went and I got a new tree. You know, we've done fake trees forever. We went out and cut our trees down this year. And brought it into the house. And so had to go get lights. Yesterday, Tania comes home from Hobby Lobby. And we bought the big Christmas bulbs, that my grandparents used to have the big Christmas bulbs.

STU: Oh, I love those.

GLENN: Yeah, so she came. And they were halogen. So he so on she came -- we put them up. We looked, that's not right.

STU: They haven't nailed the '50s to '80s Christmas lights?

GLENN: Well, they have. They've just remade them. (?) she said, but the other ones get so hot. And we were talking about it. And this is probably the wrong move. But I'm kind of willing to have the tree light on fire and just have -- just have some sort of a fire extinguisher around the tree, in case it does, for the beauty of the lights. For the memories.

How did we not all burn to death?

STU: I don't know. And, you know, people are like, oh, I got to have a natural tree. Forget it. I did it -- I did it for many, many years. And then I got an artificial tree. And, you know what, never have to worry about it.

Keep that thing year round.

GLENN: No, you didn't.

STU: Because I kept -- we kept taking the tree down. And then you put it in the box or whatever. And it gets all folded up. And then you have to come up and fluff all the branches when you put it back up. And I said we have that garage. Why don't we just put that thing up as is in the garage?

GLENN: Oh, I don't have a problem with that. In the garage?

STU: In the garage.

GLENN: I don't have a problem with this with that.

STU: I think it's smart.

GLENN: Did you see it all decorated. Everything.

I asked Tim the other day, who decorated the tree? He's like, oh, I don't know. It was decorated four years ago. We just wrap it up in bubble wrap and put it in the back. I'm like, why aren't I doing that at home.

STU: That's brilliant.

GLENN: That's exactly what should be done. You just need some sort of a place -- your tree needs to be on wheels. Your tree needs to be on wheels. And probably shouldn't be one that easily catches on fire.

A new Monroe Doctrine? Trump quietly redraws the Western map

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

The president’s moves in Venezuela, Guyana, and Colombia aren’t about drugs. They’re about re-establishing America’s sovereignty across the Western Hemisphere.

For decades, we’ve been told America’s wars are about drugs, democracy, or “defending freedom.” But look closer at what’s unfolding off the coast of Venezuela, and you’ll see something far more strategic taking shape. Donald Trump’s so-called drug war isn’t about fentanyl or cocaine. It’s about control — and a rebirth of American sovereignty.

The aim of Trump’s ‘drug war’ is to keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

The president understands something the foreign policy class forgot long ago: The world doesn’t respect apologies. It respects strength.

While the global elites in Davos tout the Great Reset, Trump is building something entirely different — a new architecture of power based on regional independence, not global dependence. His quiet campaign in the Western Hemisphere may one day be remembered as the second Monroe Doctrine.

Venezuela sits at the center of it all. It holds the world’s largest crude oil reserves — oil perfectly suited for America’s Gulf refineries. For years, China and Russia have treated Venezuela like a pawn on their chessboard, offering predatory loans in exchange for control of those resources. The result has been a corrupt, communist state sitting in our own back yard. For too long, Washington shrugged. Not any more.The naval exercises in the Caribbean, the sanctions, the patrols — they’re not about drug smugglers. They’re about evicting China from our hemisphere.

Trump is using the old “drug war” playbook to wage a new kind of war — an economic and strategic one — without firing a shot at our actual enemies. The goal is simple: Keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

Beyond Venezuela

Just east of Venezuela lies Guyana, a country most Americans couldn’t find on a map a year ago. Then ExxonMobil struck oil, and suddenly Guyana became the newest front in a quiet geopolitical contest. Washington is helping defend those offshore platforms, build radar systems, and secure undersea cables — not for charity, but for strategy. Control energy, data, and shipping lanes, and you control the future.

Moreover, Colombia — a country once defined by cartels — is now positioned as the hinge between two oceans and two continents. It guards the Panama Canal and sits atop rare-earth minerals every modern economy needs. Decades of American presence there weren’t just about cocaine interdiction; they were about maintaining leverage over the arteries of global trade. Trump sees that clearly.

PEDRO MATTEY / Contributor | Getty Images

All of these recent news items — from the military drills in the Caribbean to the trade negotiations — reflect a new vision of American power. Not global policing. Not endless nation-building. It’s about strategic sovereignty.

It’s the same philosophy driving Trump’s approach to NATO, the Middle East, and Asia. We’ll stand with you — but you’ll stand on your own two feet. The days of American taxpayers funding global security while our own borders collapse are over.

Trump’s Monroe Doctrine

Critics will call it “isolationism.” It isn’t. It’s realism. It’s recognizing that America’s strength comes not from fighting other people’s wars but from securing our own energy, our own supply lines, our own hemisphere. The first Monroe Doctrine warned foreign powers to stay out of the Americas. The second one — Trump’s — says we’ll defend them, but we’ll no longer be their bank or their babysitter.

Historians may one day mark this moment as the start of a new era — when America stopped apologizing for its own interests and started rebuilding its sovereignty, one barrel, one chip, and one border at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Breaking point: Will America stand up to the mob?

Jeff J Mitchell / Staff | Getty Images

The mob rises where men of courage fall silent. The lesson from Portland, Chicago, and other blue cities is simple: Appeasing radicals doesn’t buy peace — it only rents humiliation.

Parts of America, like Portland and Chicago, now resemble occupied territory. Progressive city governments have surrendered control to street militias, leaving citizens, journalists, and even federal officers to face violent anarchists without protection.

Take Portland, where Antifa has terrorized the city for more than 100 consecutive nights. Federal officers trying to keep order face nightly assaults while local officials do nothing. Independent journalists, such as Nick Sortor, have even been arrested for documenting the chaos. Sortor and Blaze News reporter Julio Rosas later testified at the White House about Antifa’s violence — testimony that corporate media outlets buried.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened.

Chicago offers the same grim picture. Federal agents have been stalked, ambushed, and denied backup from local police while under siege from mobs. Calls for help went unanswered, putting lives in danger. This is more than disorder; it is open defiance of federal authority and a violation of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

A history of violence

For years, the legacy media and left-wing think tanks have portrayed Antifa as “decentralized” and “leaderless.” The opposite is true. Antifa is organized, disciplined, and well-funded. Groups like Rose City Antifa in Oregon, the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club in Texas, and Jane’s Revenge operate as coordinated street militias. Legal fronts such as the National Lawyers Guild provide protection, while crowdfunding networks and international supporters funnel money directly to the movement.

The claim that Antifa lacks structure is a convenient myth — one that’s cost Americans dearly.

History reminds us what happens when mobs go unchecked. The French Revolution, Weimar Germany, Mao’s Red Guards — every one began with chaos on the streets. But it wasn’t random. Today’s radicals follow the same playbook: Exploit disorder, intimidate opponents, and seize moral power while the state looks away.

Dismember the dragon

The Trump administration’s decision to designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization was long overdue. The label finally acknowledged what citizens already knew: Antifa functions as a militant enterprise, recruiting and radicalizing youth for coordinated violence nationwide.

But naming the threat isn’t enough. The movement’s financiers, organizers, and enablers must also face justice. Every dollar that funds Antifa’s destruction should be traced, seized, and exposed.

AFP Contributor / Contributor | Getty Images

This fight transcends party lines. It’s not about left versus right; it’s about civilization versus anarchy. When politicians and judges excuse or ignore mob violence, they imperil the republic itself. Americans must reject silence and cowardice while street militias operate with impunity.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened. The violence in Portland and Chicago is deliberate, not spontaneous. If America fails to confront it decisively, the price won’t just be broken cities — it will be the erosion of the republic itself.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: Supreme Court case could redefine religious liberty

Drew Angerer / Staff | Getty Images

The state is effectively silencing professionals who dare speak truths about gender and sexuality, redefining faith-guided speech as illegal.

This week, free speech is once again on the line before the U.S. Supreme Court. At stake is whether Americans still have the right to talk about faith, morality, and truth in their private practice without the government’s permission.

The case comes out of Colorado, where lawmakers in 2019 passed a ban on what they call “conversion therapy.” The law prohibits licensed counselors from trying to change a minor’s gender identity or sexual orientation, including their behaviors or gender expression. The law specifically targets Christian counselors who serve clients attempting to overcome gender dysphoria and not fall prey to the transgender ideology.

The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The law does include one convenient exception. Counselors are free to “assist” a person who wants to transition genders but not someone who wants to affirm their biological sex. In other words, you can help a child move in one direction — one that is in line with the state’s progressive ideology — but not the other.

Think about that for a moment. The state is saying that a counselor can’t even discuss changing behavior with a client. Isn’t that the whole point of counseling?

One‑sided freedom

Kaley Chiles, a licensed professional counselor in Colorado Springs, has been one of the victims of this blatant attack on the First Amendment. Chiles has dedicated her practice to helping clients dealing with addiction, trauma, sexuality struggles, and gender dysphoria. She’s also a Christian who serves patients seeking guidance rooted in biblical teaching.

Before 2019, she could counsel minors according to her faith. She could talk about biblical morality, identity, and the path to wholeness. When the state outlawed that speech, she stopped. She followed the law — and then she sued.

Her case, Chiles v. Salazar, is now before the Supreme Court. Justices heard oral arguments on Tuesday. The question: Is counseling a form of speech or merely a government‑regulated service?

If the court rules the wrong way, it won’t just silence therapists. It could muzzle pastors, teachers, parents — anyone who believes in truth grounded in something higher than the state.

Censored belief

I believe marriage between a man and a woman is ordained by God. I believe that family — mother, father, child — is central to His design for humanity.

I believe that men and women are created in God’s image, with divine purpose and eternal worth. Gender isn’t an accessory; it’s part of who we are.

I believe the command to “be fruitful and multiply” still stands, that the power to create life is sacred, and that it belongs within marriage between a man and a woman.

And I believe that when we abandon these principles — when we treat sex as recreation, when we dissolve families, when we forget our vows — society fractures.

Are those statements controversial now? Maybe. But if this case goes against Chiles, those statements and others could soon be illegal to say aloud in public.

Faith on trial

In Colorado today, a counselor cannot sit down with a 15‑year‑old who’s struggling with gender identity and say, “You were made in God’s image, and He does not make mistakes.” That is now considered hate speech.

That’s the “freedom” the modern left is offering — freedom to affirm, but never to question. Freedom to comply, but never to dissent. The same movement that claims to champion tolerance now demands silence from anyone who disagrees. The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The real test

No matter what happens at the Supreme Court, we cannot stop speaking the truth. These beliefs aren’t political slogans. For me, they are the product of years of wrestling, searching, and learning through pain and grace what actually leads to peace. For us, they are the fundamental principles that lead to a flourishing life. We cannot balk at standing for truth.

Maybe that’s why God allows these moments — moments when believers are pushed to the wall. They force us to ask hard questions: What is true? What is worth standing for? What is worth dying for — and living for?

If we answer those questions honestly, we’ll find not just truth, but freedom.

The state doesn’t grant real freedom — and it certainly isn’t defined by Colorado legislators. Real freedom comes from God. And the day we forget that, the First Amendment will mean nothing at all.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck joins Megyn Kelly LIVE — One night ONLY in Fort Worth!

Get ready for sparks to fly. For the first time in years, Glenn will come face-to-face with Megyn Kelly — and this time, he’s the one in the hot seat. On October 25, 2025, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, Glenn joins Megyn on her “Megyn Kelly Live Tour” for a no-holds-barred conversation that promises laughs, surprises, and maybe even a few uncomfortable questions.

What will happen when two of America’s sharpest voices collide under the spotlight? Will Glenn finally reveal the major announcement he’s been teasing on the radio for weeks? You’ll have to be there to find out.

This promises to be more than just an interview — it’s a live showdown packed with wit, honesty, and the kind of energy you can only feel if you are in the room. Tickets are selling fast, so don’t miss your chance to see Glenn like you’ve never seen him before.

Get your tickets NOW at www.MegynKelly.com before they’re gone!