The lights are off, but the countdown is already on to next year’s popular Christmas-themed fundraiser.
The Lights and Sounds of Christmas display has become a holiday tradition for many local families and a godsend for local non-profit organizations.
“It’s become a tradition for us to do it, and for others it’s become a tradition to come and see it,” said Lights and Sounds of Christmas founder Jerry Frank.
“There’s families where the kids are getting into teenage years now, and they say ‘ya, we’ve been coming here every year’, and it’s become like a family tradition for so many families. It’s really fun to see that,” said Frank.
He said the season started out a bit slow with the lack of snow.
“Once people kind of realized we might not get snow, then they started coming out and we had a good amount of traffic,” said Frank, adding he hasn’t gotten the final numbers on how much was raised but anticipates a decent outcome.
“I think it’ll be up a little bit from last year,” he said.
“Anytime I had a chance to talk to people in the backyard, or wherever … they just couldn’t believe it and just really appreciated it. You always run into a few first-timers that are just blown away.”
This year, the funds are going to Big Brothers Big Sisters Lloydminster, the local Salvation Army food bank, and Lloyd’s Gift of Christmas.
Frank says the support of the community means a lot, and there are a few businesses that make a big difference, including the Musgrave Group of Companies, Canadian Tire, Home Depot, TJ’s Pizza, Safeway, and Sticks and Stones Renos and Handyman Services.
“Early in December, Musgraves organized a version of the twinkle tour, they brought a number of mini-vans and they had one of the handi-vans filled with seniors and they brought them by,” said Frank.
“Most of them were still mobile enough to get up and go see the backyard. It worked out good and it was great to be able to see the seniors come out and participate and enjoy it.”
This year’s show ran each evening from Nov. 25 until Jan. 6 but Frank said they are thinking about shutting it down a few days earlier next year.
“It’s really dropped off since new years, which is to be anticipated. We’re actually kind of reevaluating for next year that we might shut it down by about the 2nd of January or something.”
When it comes to the take-down, Frank says it’s usually just his wife and himself.
“This year we might actually get an early start on it with the lack of snow because we can get to a lot of the stuff. Other years we’ve had to wait until spring to get some of the stuff out because all of the cords are frozen underneath the snow.”
