While the days get shorter, the lights in the Upper Valley become brighter.
The Christmas lights, that is.
Last week, I visited or spoke with the folks involved with three major annual light displays — all free — in our region. Many towns also put up decorations in town centers or along major thoroughfares, and I encourage you to keep an eye out for those displays. I’ve also included a list of neighborhood light displays that our readers have recommended.
And you need not celebrate Christmas to be charmed by the thousands and thousands of bright, twinkling lights. Low on holiday cheer? It’s been my experience that even the most Scrooge-like holiday cynic betrays a smile when faced with slightly over-the-top joyfulness.
Mitchell’s Magic Christmas, Claremont
The first thing that stood out to me last Tuesday at 16 Francis St. — and there is a lot that can stand out — was the light-up Christmas tree that seemed to be singing the words to the Christmas music playing through my car’s radio (a sign on the front lawn instructs visitors to tune to 95.9). The tree’s mouth moved in time to each phrase and it gave the impression that it alone was orchestrating the flashing lights, also in time to the music.
I don’t want to know how Brian Mitchell, who has been decorating his home since the early 1990s and added the music animation in 2005, was able to accomplish this. I want the magic to remain just that: magic.
“I just loved lights since I was a kid,” Mitchell said in a telephone interview the day after I visited. He remembers how he would “make paper chains in every room of the house, just all over.”
When he bought his Claremont home in 1990 he started with a single strand of lights and one plastic Santa Claus, adding to the collection every year.
Now there are dozens of plastic Santas and 50,000 lights, “give or take,” Mitchell said. “I stopped counting when they hit 50 (thousand).”
During my visit I sat in my car for a couple of songs before parking so I could explore more. Lines of plastic street lamps led into the backyard, where the music differs from the radio broadcast heard in the front yard. A chorus of Santas squares off beside a chorus of angels, meant to resemble a sing-off between the two groups, Mitchell told me later. “Usually, the kids get it quicker than the adults.”
Mitchell, who works at Price Chopper in Windsor, scours yard sales all year to find the plastic holiday figures that populate the display. Others come his way through donations. The wooden cutouts — including scenes from A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman and How the Grinch Stole Christmas among others — Mitchell makes himself.
During the first animated show, in 2005, some visitors wanted to give Mitchell money to help support the display. “I’m not going to collect money to support my hobby,” he remembered responding.
The next year, he began accepting donations for Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth and switched to David’s House five or six years ago. “We usually give a pretty good check to David’s House every year,” said Mitchell. Last year was a little slow and the check was for about $1,700, but donations have reached as high as $2,500.
Mitchell estimates attendance figures based on how many candy canes he gives away each year: Last year he passed out 2,000. Only one or two guests of 10 take them, however, he said, indicating that thousands come by each year. “But even if there was nobody coming I’d still have the display because I just enjoy it,” Mitchell said.
How about that electric bill?
“It goes up,” Mitchell said with a chuckle. “It’s not nearly what people think it is.” He estimates the display costs about $8 a night in electricity. But it’s more than well worth it.
“No. 1 is still the lights — I still like watching the lights,” Mitchell said. Then there’s “the kids, the smiles. And the big kids. The 70-year-old kids.”
It’s a form of magic that everybody can enjoy.
The display remains lit up through the month of December, from 4:30-9:30 p.m. each night. On weekends, Santa makes regular appearances. More information can be found at http://www.claremontchristmaslights.com/.
Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial, South Royalton
Marking the birthplace of the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the historic site has been putting on a light display for more than 30 years. Strands of white lights wrapped around trees lead the way along LDS Lane toward the 50-foot-tall monument that honors Joseph Smith.
I tuned my car radio to the station indicated by a sign at the entrance and Christmas music filtered through the speakers. I drove around the paved path and through the covered bridge created by strands of white lights, my favorite part of the display.
The wind was quite cold when I visited on Wednesday, but I didn’t let it deter me from parking and walking around. Magenta, red, green, blue and orange lights illuminated trees and bushes. There were a few multicolor strands, but the most were of a single color, which seemed to make them stand out even more against the dark sky.
Two sheep and a donkey, separated by a wooden fence, sat in a manger. The donkey lifted his head as I took a photo, as if he was used to people coming by to take his picture.
The South Royalton memorial is one of many LDS sites across the country that put up lights each year. “The most magnificent place they do this is the Salt Lake (City) Temple Square,” Elder David Fuhriman, director of the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial, told me.
There are more than 150,000 lights in the South Royalton display, and last year more than 80,000 people passed through. “A lot of those 80,000 just drive the loop and look at the lights,” Fuhriman said, adding that about 15,000 park and walk around. Recently, a bus with 10 people from an assisted living facility came through.
“I love seeing all these people,” he said. “I just love to speak with them, visit them for a few minutes, find out where they’re from.”
I asked Fuhriman about the covered bridge display. “The covered bridge is unique to Vermont and this site,” he said. He’s been told that engagements take place under it every year. Last year, there were two.
The lights aren’t all there is to see: Inside the residence and visitor center there are nativity scenes on display, cookies and cider and beautiful poinsettias. New this year: Visitors are asked to bring nonperishable food items to donate to local food banks as part of a global church initiative called “Light the World.”
“I think people enjoy the lights,” Fuhriman said. “There’s just nothing like this anywhere else in Vermont.”
What a wonderful tradition to have.
The display is located at 357 LDS Lane and will be up nightly, from 4:30-10 p.m., through Jan. 1. For more information visit www.lds.org/locations/joseph-smith-birthplace-memorial?lang=eng&_r=1 or call 802-763-7742.
Shrine of Our Lady Of La Salette, Enfield
The daily light show at La Salette Shrine began Friday (past my deadline), so I haven’t yet have a chance to visit. But I did have a lovely conversation last week with Father John Sullivan, the shrine’s director.
“Our theme this year is ‘Lighting the Common Home,’ ” Sullivan said. “The theme is that we have to take care of our common home, that we have to take care of our nature and save it for our children and grandchildren.”
Sullivan said the display, made up of about 100,000 lights, started about 60 years ago.
Walking around and viewing the lights, along with the hundreds of creches on display, gives people a chance to slow down during the holiday season, which has a habit of turning into a madhouse.
“It’s a beautiful witness we try to give,” Sullivan said, “a place to develop the real spirit of Christmas, to not get caught up in the material things and just focus on the family and prayer.”
It’s a place where people can come and leave their anxieties and fears behind. There’s a cafeteria where visitors can purchase refreshments, and Santa visits every Friday and Saturday evening until Christmas.
“We try to be ecumenical,” Sullivan said. We want everyone to feel welcome.”
The shrine is at 410 Route 4A. The light show runs through the end of the month, from 5-10 p.m. For more information, call 603-632-7087 or visit http://www.lasaletteofenfield.org/events.html.
Reader Suggestions
Several readers have responded to our call for favorite streets or neighborhoods to visit to see private light displays. If you have recommendations, email the information to calendar@vnews.com.
Here are a few early suggestions:
Jackson Road, Cornish.
Nelmar Heights Road, Claremont.
Kriskarli Drive, White River Junction.
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
