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Discover Mid-America —December 2004

The yuletide spirit in the Heartland manifests itself in many ways: open house events, homes tours, parades, caroling and a wide range of holiday images. But the highlight of the season for many — and remembered for a lifetime — is the appearance of Christmas lights.

The lighting takes many forms, from decorated trees, downtown shops and courthouses throughout the region to spectacular displays covering several acres. Parks, residential neighborhoods, botanical gardens and even zoos are emblazoned with special lighting, with many of the lighting exhibits serving as local fundraising events.

Several communities in Mid-America feature lighting displays, most of which begin around Thanksgiving and remain in place throughout the holidays. Typical towns in Arkansas that fit that description are Altus, with its Festival of Lights, Searcy and Nashville with their Holiday of Lights, and the Bull Shoals Lake/White River area with their “Light the Loop” tradition.

Christmas lights are a part of “A Dickens of a Christmas,” celebrated from early November through Dec. 31 in Eureka Springs, AR. The quaint town, filled with Victorian homes clinging to mountainside perches, celebrates the holidays with a Christmas Lights Parade on Dec. 3. A Candlelight Parade of Homes is slated for the following day.

Midwest City, Oklahoma's Holiday Lights Spectacular. (Photo courtesy Midwest City Convention & Visitors Bureau)

Illinois features a 1.5-mile long light display with more than a million lights at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville. Included are a life-size nativity scene, horse-drawn carriage rides, trolley rides, camel and donkey rides, and an indoor Christmas tree display. Other Illinois lighting events are the “Lighting of the Commons” in Moline, and a Christmas Light Display in Arthur. In past years, several of the state’s historic sites have been specially lit for the holidays.

In Iowa, Keokuk residents have enjoyed their “City of Christmas” exhibit in Rand Park for many years. Several towns including Clarinda, Fort Madison, Perry, Belmond, Burlington and Waterloo feature a lighted Christmas parade.

In Kansas, unique lighting exhibits include the Trail of Lights in Great Bend, Holiday Light Displays at Shawnee Campground in Topeka, Illuminations at Botanica, the Wichita Gardens, and the Lighted Horse Parade in Barnes.

Missouri lake areas boast special lighting. Lake Ozark features an annual lake Lights Festival, and Warsaw hosts a Festival of Lights at Long Shoals Campground. Other major lighting events are held in St. Joseph, Cassville, Columbia and Carthage. But the best known of Missouri’s spectacular Christmas illuminations is seen at the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City.

Light extravaganzas

More than 75 miles of lights illuminate the Country Club Plaza, a tradition that began in 1925, three years after the beginning of the famed shopping area. The first effort was modest, with a single strand of Christmas lights strung over a store entrance.

Today, tens of thousands of lights are switched on every Thanksgiving in a ceremony featuring celebrities invited to “pull the switch.” Spectators crowd the sidewalks and line the streets to witness this annual event, which kicks off the city’s Christmas season.

The Plaza lighting is the culmination of many hours of work by a crew of electricians who begin work in September, stringing lights over domes and towers. Special trucks are used to reach high places. During the holiday season, the crews continue their work, replacing hundreds of burned-out bulbs. The lights are removed, beginning in late January. By the end of March they are checked, coiled, tied, wrapped and cataloged, then stored until the next holiday season.

This year’s lighting ceremony, set for Nov. 25 and presented by Kansas City Power and Light, marks the Plaza’s 75th season of lights. Many visitors regard the Plaza lights as the most spectacular holiday lighting display in the nation.

The Lewis & Clark Fife & Frum Corps perform in front of the historic California House at the St. Charles Christmas Traditions event. (Photo courtesy Greater St. Charles Convention & Visitors Bureau)

In the St. Louis area, Santa’s Magical Kingdom, located next to Six Flags St. Louis, includes more than two million lights in a 35-acre park. Animated scenes and special effects are featured, with Christmas music playing in the background. Spectacular effects include a 350-foot waterfall of lights, a Giant Gingerbread House, a Tunnel of Lights, Toy Land, Fountain of Lights and more. Horse-drawn carriages can be reserved in advance for tours.

Nebraska towns with Christmas lighting parades include Kimball, Central City and Minden. A large lighting display is held annually in Centennial Park in Seward. The historic courthouse at Beatrice is decorated by special lighting as the town hosts its Winter Lights event.

Several towns in Oklahoma mark the holidays with lighting events. Midwest City’s Holiday of Lights Spectacular, presented in Joe B. Barnes Regional Park, is Oklahoma’s largest seasonal lighting event. More than 75 displays with more than a million lights can be seen, along a one-mile drive. Traditional horse-drawn carriage rides are available.

Bartlesville hosts a Fantasyland of Lights Festival in Johnstone Park. Visitors can drive through the park and see hundreds of thousands of lights, plus larger-than-life animated displays. Oklahoma City’s “Downtown in December” features ice sculptures amid thousands of sparkling lights, and the lighting of the state’s tallest cut tree, Bricktown Christmas Tree. The Myriad Botanical Gardens feature Holiday Garden Lights and the Bricktown Canal features festive displays with more than 50,000 lights.

A trail of holiday lights is featured in two parks in Duncan. Other “light tours” are held in Broken Arrow, Muskogee and Checotah. Chickasha and Kingfisher also sponsor lighting festivals, and Yukon’s “Christmas in the Park” consists of more than 100 acres overflowing with thousands of lights.

John Denver sang about the beauty of Christmas in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Nowhere is this more evident than in Denver, where it is possible to take a Limousine Tour of Christmas Lights beginning the day after Thanksgiving. The tour, originating in Arvada, includes the best commercial lighting in Denver, and also the most spectacular residential displays.

The city’s largest single lighting display is probably the annual Holiday Light Display at the City and County Building at 1437 Bannock Street. The event dates back to 1935 and has grown into a favorite Denver holiday tradition with more than 20,000 lights.

Recalling lights past and present

When I was growing up in northeast Missouri, my family frequently drove about 40 miles on Christmas day to visit my aunt and step-grandmother in Hamilton, IL, a small town on the Mississippi River. The drive took us through Keokuk, IA, an old river town with a large collection of Victorian homes and other riverboat-era antiquities.

On the drive home, we detoured along Grand Avenue where the old Queen Annes and Georgian residences were clustered, and saw the holiday lights the owners had assembled for the season. As we left the town, crossed the Des Moines River, and headed for the farm, we passed isolated farm houses, their simple lighted trees casting a modest but cheery glow in the Christmas night.

Years later, my wife and I drove at night from the Keokuk area to Kansas City via a country highway. About halfway home, we noticed a collection of lighted trees in the distance, not far from the highway. We pulled off to investigate.

The main street of a village was nearly covered with displays of angels, reindeer, Santa figures, nativity scenes and holiday figures of every description. At the end of the street, a woman dressed as Mrs. Claus handed out candy canes, all illuminated with festive lights. There was a basket close by where visitors left a donation for a local charity. The experience brightened our holidays as nothing else did that year.

Over the years, individual lighting displays have become larger and more sophisticated. From homeowners hanging strings of lights 50 years ago to animated displays driven by high-tech computer programs, residential lighting has become a major part of the holiday celebration. Internet websites such as http://v.webring.com chronicle the efforts by “Christmas light addicts” to out-do each other. Descriptions and photos of displays are given on this and other websites, along with how-to information.

Many residential displays incorporate nontraditional messages with the customary holiday greetings. For the past several years one of our neighbors, an ardent fan of the Kansas City Chiefs NFL football team, has an elaborate display, creatively blending Christmas themes with enthusiastic commentaries on the Chiefs. Another neighbor devotes much of his property to seasonal displays, beginning with bunnies and ducks in the spring, switching to ghouls, pumpkins, and cornstalks in October, and ending the year with dozens of Christmas figures, from Santa, reindeer and snowmen to a nativity display.

Throughout our city and others across the Midwest, many homeowners vie with each other to dominate the winter night with vivid and spectacular displays. Some are worthy of special tours. Some would say we’ve come a long way since a Christmas tree in a window and a string of lights conveyed a warm greeting to passersby. Others would argue that the displays are an example of consumerism and a tacky waste of energy.

Whether you react to these displays with a “ho ho” or “humbug,” they’re the way we light up the holidays in Mid-America.

Discover Mid-America founder and Senior Contributing Editor Ken Weyand files regular reports on notable Midwest destinations. He can be reached at kweyand@gbronline.com.

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