Every December, my wife and I take the senior girls in my high school journalism classes downtown to see the Christmas lights.
It’s like an evening field trip. They get to experience the magic of the Macon Christmas Light Extravaganza. They take photos and videos for our news site, “The Stratford Gazebo” and daily broadcast, “Good Morning, Stratford.’’
Bryan Nichols, the founding father of this incredible display, is gracious enough to meet with us. (Please watch the video of his interview with Gazebo co-editor Clarke Jones.)
There are more than 1 million twinkling lights in the show this year, which stretches across five blocks on Poplar and over to Third Street. One million is about seven bulbs for every man, woman and child in Macon, a few dogs and a partridge in a pear tree.
Add in synchronized, recorded holiday music from the Macon Pops, carriage rides and special appearances by Santa with live reindeer. There are now four snow machines – so you can experience a white Christmas even on the balmiest of December evenings.
Bryan considers it more than just channeling his inner Clark Griswold. Over the past six years, it has brought the community together like no other holiday event.
When the lights are flipped at dusk every evening, Bryan has a special glow all his own. Never mind that it takes two months to hang the lights, and that there are four “shows” each night for 36 straight nights and that it takes a month to pack them all away when it ends.
It’s not just about the lights.
He can move up and down the avenues, blending in as Jolly Old St. Incognito.
“That’s the beauty of it,’’ he said. “I can come out here and walk around and nobody has to know who I am. I get to soak up all the incredible stuff that’s going on and see the reward of the hard work.’’
Nothing is more gratifying than watching families spending time together, children singing and playing, and couples holding hands and dancing.
“I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world,’’ he said.
The lights are bright, even in the dimmest moments. He recalls the time he was incredibly frustrated about having to fix something that had gone wrong. Then he looked up and saw a man on his knees, proposing to his girlfriend. Another time, he was able to meet with a woman in hospice care, who was brought downtown to see the lights.
“It was the last time she was going to see the Christmas lights,’’ he said. “I got to sit with her. She was crying and talking about how beautiful it was. It was special.’’
We don’t always know people’s circumstances. We don’t know who they are or where they have been or what they are dealing with. We don’t always know their political allegiances, school loyalties, church affiliation or dietary restrictions.
None of that matters, anyway.
“It’s like everything is just a big melting pot of happiness, joy, peace and everything the holiday season is supposed to be,’’ Bryan said.
There was no guarantee it was going to work when he plugged in the first string of lights in 2017. At the time, Bryan was co-owner of a downtown coffee shop, Taste & See. Although it was at the epicenter of Poplar, in the wide block between Second and Third, it was located on an avenue of barren storefronts in serious need of a reboot.
It wasn’t a question of “where are the people?” but rather “how do we get them downtown?” He dreamed of a light show to illuminate the way and turn a rundown street into a vibrant area. His idea was not just to string up a few pretty lights but to make downtown a yuletide destination.
In the years leading up to his vision, he had noticed a disturbing trend. There seemed to be fewer holiday lights across the city. Several downtown displays, including the nativity scene on Coleman Hill, were either disappearing or in a state of decline. The demise had spread to some of the neighborhoods, where traditional light displays, like the spectacular ones on Capitol Avenue and Glen Hill Court, had grown dark and faded into oblivion.
But where could he start? No, you can’t just log on to Amazon and buy 10,000 boxes of holiday lights. You can catch a few after-Christmas sales, but everybody else is looking for the same deal. And the demand is usually much greater than the supply.
In the months leading up to Christmas of 2017, he sent his mother on a mission. She drove to almost every Lowe’s store in Georgia to buy up their inventory of LED holiday lights. He later convinced those willing to help fund the project to let him use the money to buy more lights instead of paying someone else to put them up.
Those early years were an affirmation. He would be out working on a 45-foot boom putting up the displays and people would stop to thank him. They would tell him how much it meant to them. They would remember with fondness how they would come downtown as a child to see the lights, and now they were returning to see a bigger and brighter version through the eyes of their children and grandchildren.
“Christmas lights are a part of our lives,’’ Bryan said.
Thank you, Bryan Nichols, for brightening the holidays for all of us.
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