
A Family Affair: Home Christmas Displays
Clip: Season 31 Episode 9 | 6m 34sVideo has Closed Captions
Come visit two Kentucky families to have taken the tradition of Christmas lights to new heights.
As you drive through Lexington during the holidays, you are bound to come across Christmas lights that illuminate the town during the season. But these two homes? They’re taking it to a whole new level. There is far more to these displays than meets the eye. Let’s take a look!
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Kentucky Life is a local public television program presented by KET
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A Family Affair: Home Christmas Displays
Clip: Season 31 Episode 9 | 6m 34sVideo has Closed Captions
As you drive through Lexington during the holidays, you are bound to come across Christmas lights that illuminate the town during the season. But these two homes? They’re taking it to a whole new level. There is far more to these displays than meets the eye. Let’s take a look!
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipNow, one component of getting ready for the holidays for many of us is putting lights on our house.
That's especially the case in Lexington where two families take these exhibits to a whole new level.
And there's far more to these displays than meets the eye.
Let's take a look.
Every holiday season, neighborhoods light up with unique light displays spreading Christmas cheer.
In some parts of Lexington, the lights do more than just twinkle.
They perform.
But who are the people behind the dazzling displays that draw crowds each year?
For both the Joneses and the Turners, these lights are more than just a hobby.
They are a passion.
The light display is somewhere around 15,000 lights and it's all synchronized to music.
There's about six different songs that I programmed and narration between each of the songs, and it all loops every night during the month of December.
People come and watch from their cars.
The music plays over an FM transmitter, so they tune their radio to 89.5 FM.
We started with our own three children, started decorating.
Very little, you know, but the kids enjoyed it so much and got excited.
And some of the neighbors' children will come over and join our children, and it just grew from there and started gradually.
Every Christmas, it just got bigger and bigger.
And we just started having parties, inviting people over.
And then, we had Santa Claus.
And it's amazing how it spread and how many people it has made so happy.
I get beautiful letters from people, and cards and gifts, just telling me how much they appreciate what we've done.
So, what drives them to get bigger and brighter each year?
Decorating for Christmas and viewing Christmas lights in one's neighborhood or in one's community is a shared experience that most of us can relate to, whether we celebrate Christmas or not.
And regardless of what that shared experience is we know from countless studies that the more people are engaged in similar activities, the more that they can talk about those experiences, the more bonded and the stronger the community connections are.
For the Joneses and the Turners, it all began with family, creating memories and sparking that childlike wonder in everyone who stops to watch.
I was born legally blind.
I had about 20/400 vision when I was growing up.
Over time, my vision got worse.
So, when I was in my early 20s, my vision changed to where it is now.
But I have a lot of memory of what things used to look like when I could see more when I was younger.
So, I know what Christmas lights look like, and I can somewhat see the lights from them when I'm really close.
I have 13 in my family.
And then, I lost my father at a very early age, and then my mother was diagnosed with some bad health problems.
So, I've always said that once we can do this and take it to the next step, we were gonna do it.
My whole family plays a big part of all this.
I couldn't do it without them.
The light shows do more than just light up Lexington.
They share a message.
I think there's absolutely a bond that can be developed between the creator of the Christmas displays and the viewer, even if they never meet.
The message is, “I wanna bring you joy.
I wanna show you something beautiful.” And so I think that that can feel really good.
And the secret behind Ryan's magical setup?
A special software helping the Joneses bring their incredible vision to life.
I have to spend a lot more time on the sequencing than most people.
The songs that I have in the show right now took anywhere from 40, 50, maybe 60 hours of work to program those songs.
I start putting the lights up physically in October each year.
It takes me about two months.
And between each song, there's a segment of narration anywhere from 20 seconds to a minute and it's going through different parts of the Christmas stories.
And so, my wife Kayla does all the narration.
The whole thing fits together to provide not only the music, but the narration and the lights with it.
And for the Turners, their secret is simple, teamwork.
We both have different views of things, naturally.
So, his job is to take care of the outside, mine is the inside.
I do what I wanna do in here, and he does what he wants to do out there, and it works a lot better.
[laughs] Beyond the glitz of the displays, both families want to remind the community of something deeper, the true meaning of Christmas.
Christmas to us is important to share about the birth of Jesus Christ, and that's something that's important to us to share via the light show.
I want to create a feeling of happiness and hope for people.
Christmas is about hope, that's the whole meaning of Christmas.
I wanted the children and the adults to realize what Christmas is really about.
It's not gifts, it's not Santa Claus, but there's more to this.
It is Jesus's birthday.
We need to celebrate, and we need to thank Him for all His blessings.
And then, ho-ho comes running out with gifts, so that's even more exciting.
And what does that mean for the families who gather here?
I think there is a sense of tradition and a sense of nostalgia and a sense of stability that can come from engaging in traditional activities that we do year after year.
At the end of the day, these displays don't just tell a story of the season, they deliver joy, connection, and remind us all of what matters most.
You can do things you wanna do even if you have a challenge in doing them.
This shows that you can do things if you decide to dedicate yourself to doing them.
And if you have the access and use the right tools and technology, you can accomplish the things that you want to accomplish even when you have challenges to overcome.
It may take you a little bit longer, you may have to do them a different way, but it can still be doable.
So, those two things are the real keys that we want to communicate with our light show.
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Clip: S31 Ep9 | 6m 17s | Explore Kentucky's Christmas history and see where some of these traditions came from. (6m 17s)
Oh Little Town of Bethlehem (KY)
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Kentucky Life is a local public television program presented by KET
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