2 weeks Ago By Sarah C. Johnson [email protected]
Here are three houses in the Hickory area that shine a light on the Christmas season. One of the homes features fast-moving Christmas lights that blink along with heavy metal rock. Another home display covers more than 3 acres.
Christmas lights at the home of Lewis Hefner at 22 Five Oaks Lane in Hickory. If you are headed to 22 Five Oaks Lane in Hickory, be prepared to rock. Lewis Hefner, 47, said he started with traditional Christmas songs for his light display but people were unimpressed.
“They really wanted to see the lights flash as fast as I could get them,” he said. That led Hefner to a harder rock sound. Lewis Hefner created a 15-foot-tall castle for his Christmas lights display.
Hefner, who started adding to his Christmas decorations 12 years ago, said he has around 20,000 lights, including 1,200 LED bulbs on the roof alone. The lights flash between 10 to 20 times per second depending on the song, he said. Minions, Star Wars and Disney characters line the walkway in front of Hefner’s house, joined by a 15-foot-tall castle.
Hefner built the castle with strands of LED lights, corrugated plastic and two-by-fours. The lights in the castle, figurines and other decorations are programmed to flash to music. The playlist ranges from classic Christmas songs to metal, Hefner said.
Lewis Hefner sets up one of Santa's reindeer in the front yard of his Bethlehem home. The joy the lights bring to the community is what keeps Hefner going year after year. He said often children leave handwritten notes and drawings for his family.
Last year, Hefner even received a glitter bomb from a young fan. Hefner plans to start his light show on Dec. 7 from 6-9 p.
m., if the weather permits. When it rains, Hefner cannot run his light show.
The nightly show will continue until around New Year’s Day. Check out the Facebook page Lew’s Lights for updated schedules during inclement weather. Lew’s Lights is located at 22 Five Oaks Lane in Hickory.
The Chester Family Light Show display lit up for Christmas. Doug Chester, 43, has 40,000 pixels assembled into candy canes, trees and snowflakes, a large TV screen in the center of the display and around 30 songs programmed onto his computer. Let the light show begin.
Chester’s show runs from 6-9 p.m. through Jan.
5. Check the Facebook page The Chester Family Light Show for updates every day to see if a show has been canceled. He said he started with traditional lights, spending a couple hundred dollars a year.
He pondered the next step. “So, I started looking online," he said. "I found a guy on YouTube.
He had a display like this that was on (the reality TV show) ‘The Great Christmas Light Fight.’ I said, ‘Let's see if I can try that.’” Liza Chester and Doug Chester poses together in front of Doug's childhood home.
He decorates the home, which belongs to his parents, each year from Christmas. That was about eight years ago. His first project was a roughly 15-foot-tall tree made with 2,000 pixels.
It costs Chester around $30 per month to run the pixel lights. Chester said before he switched from traditional Christmas lights to the pixels, his electricity bill was significantly higher. Chester said he averages around 1,000 cars per week.
Chester has a field for cars to park in, like a drive-in movie theater. Doug Chester uses pixel lights for his display. He built each decoration in his Christmas display “When I first got into this, you know, I loved the way my daughters’ eyes lighted up when we’d turn the lights on,” Chester said.
“And then I slowly got bigger (with my display). I get frustrated every year about something, but seeing the kids’ faces warms my heart. Little kids love it.
They’ll be out here screaming the songs.” The Chester Family Light Show is located at 1350 Savior Lane in Granite Falls. Bobby Jordan's Christmas display featuring hundreds of lighted figurines.
Bobby Jordan has roughly 3.5 acres of land covered in Christmas figurines, string lights and inflatables. “I think it really started getting out of hand about 2012.
I went back and looked on our photos,” Bobby’s wife Brenda Jordan said. “When his son Bob was little, he (Bobby) told him he'd add 2,500 lights a year, but it was like every year he went crazy.” Bobby Jordan said he usually triples that number of promised additional lights.
“After Christmas, we hit all the sales,” Brenda Jordan said. Bobby Jordan now has at least 200,000 lights and a power bill of at least $1,000 each holiday season, he said. Brenda Jordan said they turn the lights on when the sun starts to set and leave them on until 10:30 p.
m. Brenda Jordan talks about the Christmas decorations as Bobby Jordan inspects his work. Brenda Jordan said they eventually had to switch to LED lights because their old Christmas lights caused the transformer at the house to burn out twice.
“We’ve got two meters that run just the lights,” Bobby Jordan added. Jordan runs his lights every night through New Year’s Day, weather permitting. When cars approach the house from Rink Dam Road, people first see a field of angels, a church and crosses.
Brenda Jordan said her favorite decoration in their entire yard is a roughly 12-foot cross made of two-by-fours and metal wrapped in strands of LED lights. “I asked him if he’d build a cross. So, he built this cross for me, and it was so beautiful,” Brenda Jordan said.
“Then next year, I'm like, ‘Can we add the two small crosses to it?’ So, he built those. Every year, I wanted to add an angel to this side. We’ve got a lot of angels because we've been doing it for a while now.
This is really my favorite side of the yard. It's what Christmas is all about.” The Jordans have around 100 inflatables as well.
Bobby Jordan said it takes him at least two months to set up his display. “We've always loved Christmas since when I was little,” Bobby Jordan said. “Christmas was special.
" He added, "We always had big Christmases. So, I wanted to have big Christmases for my kids.” The Jordan family’s home is located at 123 Lake Vista Lane off Rink Dam Road in Taylorsville.
Sarah Johnson is the courts and breaking news reporter for the Hickory Daily Record. For the holidays: Get inspiring home and gift ideas – sign up now! Reporter {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items..
