During the spring and summer months, passing drivers might not pay much attention to Albert and Margaret Murray’s home on Jefferson Drive.

But come the week before Thanksgiving each year, there’s no mistaking it.

On Nov. 27, the Murrays set up and switched on the final pieces of their Christmas lights and lawn ornament display that will cover the couple’s front lawn through New Year’s Eve.

The couple has been amassing decorations for the past 30 years.

“It started off really small and now it’s come to what you see now,” Albert said.

Some of the hard plastic blow mold ornaments, which the Murrays purchased decades ago  from a Norfolk store that’s long since shuttered, are irreplaceable. Albert, an experienced woodworker and welder who by day is a service manager for a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning company, made several of the others himself,  including the wooden houses, reindeer and a Santa sleigh.

Other ornaments they purchased online.

“We buy more every year,” Margaret said.

The ever-growing collection has become a generational attraction.

Albert, who’s lived for more than 40 years at the same address, said some of the parents who bring their children to see the display have told him their parents used to bring them as children to see his setup when he first started.

“That’s really why we do it, to bring joy to the neighborhood,” Albert said. “It really seems to mean a lot to the folks around here.”

Among them are neighbor Rhonda Schultz, who on Nov. 27 brought her grandchildren to see the display.

“So many cars and people come to see it,” Schultz said.

The display is also intended to honor Albert’s mother, who died in 2005 on Christmas Day. She too would go all out with decorating her home every year despite living in a rural area where no one could see her home from the street.

“Christmas was her favorite holiday. … so we wanted to make the yard bright enough for her to see,” Albert said. “We have many people who come around to tell about family members who passed. It would just brighten their day to come by and take pictures. We hear a lot of stories.”

The Murrays say it takes about three to four weeks ahead of Thanksgiving to put everything up, starting with the lights.

“We always try to get the house done first and then we do the yard,” Albert said.

When not in use, the decorations fit into second-floor storage above the home’s carport and two backyard sheds.

“We try to make everything as compact as we can,” Albert said.

Margaret’s mother, who lives with the Murrays,  is in charge of interior decorating. Inside, the family has six trees.

Her mother “just turned 81 and is still decorating like crazy,” Margaret said.

“We definitely love Christmas,” Margaret said.