Clark Griswold would be green with envy.

Not only is Dave Sanderson's Christmas lights display one of the most popular in Ankeny, but Sanderson is having all those warm and fuzzy feelings that Chevy Chase pines for in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."

The city that Sanderson accused of "stealing Christmas" is giving him a nice present this year - the use of $680 worth of new signs to safely direct traffic through his usually quiet neighborhood to his over-the-top lights show.

"It's all hearts and rainbows now," Sanderson said.

This from a man who this summer said city officials had treated him "like a criminal."

Sanderson, a 55-year-old president of an advertising company, has been dressing his house in Christmas lights for 15 years, adding to the display each year.

Last year he strung up some 40,000 lights and added software, allowing him to control the lights from a computer in his living room.

The lights popped and flashed and danced to music he broadcast to car stereos. Viewers came by the thousands, attracting the attention of local authorities.
City officials were worried about the traffic blocking a police car or ambulance should there be an emergency.

Sanderson agreed but didn't like the officials' tone.

The ensuing fight culminated with Sanderson launching a Web site, www.TheCityThatStoleChristmas.com, which railed against the city for being more interested in shutting him down than working with him. It featured pictures of the Grinch.

It might sound like a lot of bickering over a single Christmas lights display, but it's nothing compared to what happened in Little Rock, Ark., in the early 1990s.
There, a man named Jennings Osborne so irritated his neighbors with his elaborate Christmas display of more than 3 million lights that they sued him for causing a nuisance.

The case went to the Arkansas Supreme Court, which told him to dim his lights.

Ankeny officials say they were trying to work with Sanderson all along, and the who-did-what-and-when goes back more than a year. But the long and short of it is this: Sanderson and the city are getting along again.
City officials approached him well before Thanksgiving. Public Works Director Paul Moritz drafted a traffic plan. The police and fire chiefs gave advice. A meeting with the neighbors was held, public input taken.

"We hope that this plan works to the benefit of everybody," said Assistant City Manager Jim Spradling, who added that the $680 spent on temporary signs for Sanderson's neighborhood were well worth the price.

Terri Sawatzky, a neighbor of Sanderson who applauded the city's efforts, agreed.

"We want to know that fire and police can get here if need be," she said, noting that there hasn't seemed to be as much traffic this year.

For Sanderson, the city's efforts this year have "restored my faith in Ankeny city government." His Web site is still up, but the pictures of the Grinch have been replaced with hearts.

As Clark Griswold said, "We're all in this together."