BLUEFIELD, W.Va. -The Holiday of Lights is a popular, free attraction in Bluefield, West Virginia that brings people to the city from all over the country.
The Christmas spirit tags along with you as you drive through, and this attraction is a labor of love that takes months of preparation from everyone involved.
“The Holiday of Lights we actually begin our holiday lights set up about mid-September where we start doing repairs to all of the displays. Most of them get damaged through the season and we have to rebulb, or bulbs go out, string lights, all that stuff. So, we begin our repairs in mid-September and then we begin setting up displays on the first of October and it takes us all the way up until the day of Thanksgiving to try and get it completed,” said Craig Strahm, the Public Works Forum for the City of Bluefield.
But this year mother nature had other plans, Hurricane Helene caused a major delay for the popular attraction at West Virginia’s Christmas City.
“Actually, had a huge impact on us because we were not able to start doing any repairs. When the storm hit about when we normally start, it took us three and a half weeks just to clear the park of all the downed trees and the damage. We lost all the electrical panels on the backside of the park, which all had to be replaced. So, we were about a month behind starting,” said Strahm. With help from Recovery Point and the Public Works Team, they were able to pull off the holiday of lights this year with constant work, Strahm says it’s a lot like decorating a home, but on a massive scale.
“It’s just like if you’re decorating your house, we first make sure the displays work, then they all have to be brought out. We usually have our park supervisor who generally decides the placements, making sure that it looks good, and then once everything looks good, we have to start wiring and you’re looking at miles and miles of wire,” continued Strahm.
Strahm says that all of the hard work and preparations pay off when the gates open for the season.
“I mean, it’s like I said, you come out and it’s a lot of work, but then when you see cars that go, that line up for miles just to come through and see the lights, it makes. It makes it, it makes it worth doing it, said Strahm.
Along with the lights, the attraction has the Mistletoe Market, a 40ft inflatable Santa, an ice-skating rink, a musical and animated Christmas light show and much more.
The musical Christmas tree is located in the Mistletoe Market. It stands 30ft tall, and it’s all handmade.
“We wanted to do something special, and so our tradesman, him and another one actually built the drum to go with it. The two toy soldiers are actually made from stormwater tubing. So, they’re pretty handy. They come up with some interesting things, but that’s all stuff that we normally use on a day-to-day basis, and they turned it into Christmas displays,” said Strahm.
Something not many people know about the Holiday of Lights is that many of the displays are actually made in-house.
“Even though we purchase a few displays, some of the displays are purchased, a large number of them, like the octopus that we added this year, that was actually made by one of our tradesmen. He actually just took rebar and he’s very artistic and he came up with the crafting and he built a giant octopus to go out with our shipyard. So, over half the displays here are made in house by regular guys that are just really creative,” continued Strahm.
If you are interested in seeing the display for yourself, they are open until the first weekend in January.
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