Elaborate holiday light displays are making spirits bright in a big way

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow might be enough to brighten some homes this holiday season. But others are adorned with thousands of blinking lights synched to blasting music, drawing crowds and bolstering both holiday and community spirit.

In a cul-de-sac in Mesa, Arizona, 14 homeowners have been going all-out on holiday lights for the last 30 years in a tradition that hasn’t been diminished by real estate turnover.

Those buying homes in the neighborhood often find the attics full of décor left behind as a gift from the previous owners, and despite cultural and religious differences, residents come together to create a festival of lights, Stephanie Castillo Price said.

“Everybody has been able to take their interpretation of the holidays and put it into a full circle,” she said. “There’s not somebody that’s going to walk down the street and not feel included.”

In Santa Clarita, California, residents of Wakefield Court decided to coordinate their holiday light displays as a way to bring some joy to their community after an earthquake. Now in its 30th year, the Wakefield Winter Wonderland includes inflatable figures and wooden cutouts of a variety of characters, from Mickey Mouse to Homer Simpson.

Bryan Cobb admits he initially was against buying a home in the neighborhood when he and his wife first viewed it.

“She started crying and said, ‘But this is the Christmas street! I want to live there!’” he said. “She got her way. We live here, we love it. All the neighbors bond together.”

In Edmond, Oklahoma, those looking to the western sky will easily spot the Miranda family's elaborate holiday light display featuring images and music from the movie “Wicked.” Spotlights reminiscent of movie studio lights shoot up from the roof, while a singing witch’s face takes shape across a towering tree.

“It just seemed like the perfect fit with a light show because you can really do the drama with the lights,” said Elisabeth Miranda, who handles the programming while her husband, Mark, tackles installation. “It takes a very long time to set up. Every single bulb has a spot, a place, a number, so that when we program it, it does exactly what it needs to do at the right time.”

The family started putting up holiday lights in 2015 and saw a surge in traffic after being featured on ABC’s “The Great Christmas Light Fight.” While most neighbors have been supportive, a few complaints prompted the couple to take a few years off before returning with a better plan to limit viewing hours and control traffic.

This year, they are collecting donations for the Oklahoma Fraternal Order of Police.

“They give so much back to our community, so that’s our little way of saying thank you to them for everything they do for us,” Miranda said.

Charity also is a component in Las Vegas, where Laura Walters and Lenny Standish are closing in on a four-year goal of collecting 10,000 pairs of socks and underwear for organizations that help homeless people.

Their display started during the COVID-19 pandemic with a single Christmas tree for community members to add ornaments. This year, they have three snow machines in addition to the lights and music.

“People are looking for joy,” Walters said. “Our world is a tough place. So to be able to just come and feel just an incredible amount of love and happiness — it’s peaceful. We’ve never had one problem here at all. Everyone’s been highly respectful of our home and full of gratitude.”

Richard Taylor of Kennesaw, Georgia, estimates that more than 40,000 people visit his display of 1.2 million lights each year.

“We bring joy to a lot of people,” he said. “They walk around and they forget all their problems, and they just enjoy themselves.”

Associated Press video journalists Ty ONeil in Las Vegas, Ross Franklin in Arizona, Ron Harris in Georgia and Marcio Sanchez in California contributed to this report.

Children are wheeled through the Wakefield Winter Wonderland lighted neighborhood to view the Christmas lights in Santa Clarita, Calif. on Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

A home is decorated in winter themes in the Wakefield Winter Wonderland neighborhood decorated with Christmas lights in Santa Clarita, Calif. on Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Local residents walk through the Wakefield Winter Wonderland neighborhood decorated with Christmas lights in Santa Clarita, Calif. on Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

A Star Wars illuminated theme decorate the front lawn of a home in a neighborhood in Mesa, Ariz., Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross Franklin)

Local residents walk through the Wakefield Winter Wonderland neighborhood decorated with Christmas lights in Santa Clarita, Calif. on Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Trees are decorated with holiday lights in a neighborhood in Mesa, Ariz., Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross Franklin)

Local residents drive through the Wakefield Winter Wonderland neighborhood decorated with Christmas lights in Santa Clarita, Calif. on Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Local children walk the Wakefield Winter Wonderland neighborhood decorated with Christmas lights in Santa Clarita, Calif. on Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

A family looks at the Lights of Joy display Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Kennesaw, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

A child shows excitement at a sign that says "Santa Comes in Nine Days" at the Lights of Joy display Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Kennesaw, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

A child pokes their head through a light display at the Lights of Joy display Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Kennesaw, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

A Santa decoration is seen among holiday lights at the Lights of Joy display Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Kennesaw, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

An elaborate holiday light display featuring music and imagery from the movie "Wicked" lights up the home of Elisabeth and Mark Miranda in Edmond, Okla.,, on Dec. 8, 2024. (Elisabeth Miranda via AP)

A giant rocking horse is displayed on the front lawn of a home decorated with holiday lights in a neighborhood in Mesa, Ariz., Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross Franklin)

The Simpsons cartoon characters decorate the front of a Wakefield Winter Wonderland as local residents walk the neighborhood decorated with Christmas lights in Santa Clarita, Calif. on Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Local residents drive through the Wakefield Winter Wonderland neighborhood decorated with Christmas lights in Santa Clarita, Calif. on Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

A family walks through a light display at the Lights of Joy display Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Kennesaw, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Resident Bryan Cobb puts the finishing touches on the lights on his house for the Wakefield Winter Wonderland lighted street in Santa Clarita, Calif. on Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Opponents of abortion are increasingly focusing on restricting access to pills, which are the most common way to end a pregnancy in the U.S.

This month, the Texas attorney general's office filed a lawsuit against a New York doctor, saying she violated Texas law by prescribing abortion pills to a patient there via telemedicine. The suit represents the first lawsuit of its kind and could lead to a legal test for the New York law designed to protect providers there who prescribe the drugs to patients in states with abortion bans.

Anti-abortion officials are taking other steps, too, through legislation and lawsuits.

Abortion rights advocates are also concerned that President-elect Donald Trump's administration could take action to restrict access if it chose to.

By the time the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and opened the door for states to ban abortion, over half of all abortions were obtained using medication, usually a combination of the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol.

The drugs are different than Plan B and other emergency contraceptives that are usually taken within three days after possible conception, weeks before women know they're pregnant. Studies have found they're generally safe and result in completed abortions more than 97% of the time, which is less effective than procedural abortions.

By last year, nearly two-thirds of abortions were from medications, according to a tally by the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion access.

Much of the growth has been through abortion pills prescribed via telehealth and mailed to patients. A survey conducted for the Society of Family Planning found that by the first half of 2024, such prescriptions accounted for about one-tenth of abortions in the U.S.

That number has risen rapidly since 2023 when some Democratic-controlled states started adopting laws that seek to protect medical providers in their borders who prescribe abortion pills via telehealth to patients in states where abortion is banned.

“Telehealth for abortion has been a huge success,” said Ushma Upadhyay, a professor at the Center of Health and Community and the University of California San Francisco. “It has helped people in an incredible way.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton rolled out a new strategy in the fight over pills this month when he sued Dr. Maggie Carpenter, who is based in New York, alleging she prescribed and sent pills to a Texas woman.

New York is one of at least eight states with a law intended to protect medical providers who prescribe abortion pills to patients in states with bans.

If Texas prevails upon a judge to block Carpenter from prescribing in the state, it's unclear what would happen next. New York's shield law would bar it from being enforced in New York, said David Cohen, a professor at Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law.

Cohen said he expects any ruling would not have a major chilling effect on other doctors who prescribe out-of-state patients. “They certainly seem undeterred by legal risk,” he said.

And, he said, like illegal drugs, they'll continue to be available if there's a demand for them. Cohen said Paxton “is going to plug one hole if he succeeds. There's no way he plugs them all.”

Pill prescribing has already withstood one key effort to block it. The U.S. Supreme Court this year ruled that a group of anti-abortion physicians and organizations that represent them lacked the legal standing to force the undoing of federal approvals for mifepristone.

The state attorneys general from Idaho, Kansas and Missouri responded in October with a legal filing contending that they can make such an argument. Instead of focusing on the drug’s initial approval in 2000, they’re looking at later changes from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that allow its use for the first 10 weeks of pregnancy and telemedicine prescriptions.

There hasn't yet been a ruling on their case. When there is, it will likely be appealed to a higher court.

This year, Louisiana became the first state with a law to reclassify both mifepristone and misoprostol as “controlled dangerous substances.” The drugs are still allowed, but medical personnel have to go through extra steps to access them.

Some doctors said in a legal challenge that the change could cause delays in administering them in emergencies, such as when a woman is hemorrhaging after giving birth.

Dr. Jennifer Avengo, director of the New Orleans Health Department, said that in the first few months of enforcement, she did not hear of any cases where the drugs could not be accessed in time.

Additional states are considering ways to restrict abortion pills in their 2025 legislative sessions.

In Tennessee, a Republican state lawmaker has proposed creating a $5 million civil liability against those who deliver or help access abortion pills with the intent of helping someone end a pregnancy.

Rep. Gino Bulso said he filed the bill after learning that abortion pills were being sent to Tennessee despite state law prohibiting such actions. “I began to think about how we might be able to both provide an additional deterrent to companies violating the criminal law and provide a remedy for the family of the unborn children,” he said.

A proposal in Missouri would make it a crime to deliver mifepristone or other drugs with the intent of causing an abortion. In November, the state's voters adopted a constitutional amendment to allow abortion until fetal viability — which is somewhere past 21 weeks into a pregnancy, though there's no fixed timeframe.

Trump's administration also could take action on the pill policy.

One approach that abortion rights advocates have warned about — and which some abortion opponents have suggested — includes enforcing an 1873 law against pills that bans mailing medications or instruments used in abortion. President Joe Biden's administration has declined to do so.

The FDA could also change its approvals of the drugs, even without being forced to do so by a court ruling.

During his campaign, Trump flip-flopped on abortion policy and at points attempted to distance himself from abortion opponents. Since he won the election, though, he has nominated abortion opponents to administration posts.

In an interview with Time magazine published this month, he gave rambling answers to questions about pills. He said he intended to maintain access but also left the door open to changing his mind.

Associated Press reporter Kimberlee Kruesi contributed to this article.

FILE - People march through downtown Amarillo to protest a lawsuit to ban the abortion drug mifepristone, Feb. 11, 2023, in Amarillo, Texas. (AP Photo/Justin Rex, File)

FILE - A patient prepares to take the first of two combination pills, mifepristone, for a medication abortion during a visit to a clinic in Kansas City, Kan., Oct. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

FILE - Mifepristone tablets are seen in a Planned Parenthood clinic Thursday, July 18, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)