Residents of a south Hall County neighborhood light up their cul de sac through a yearly tradition.
Chris Sexton, his wife Julie and son Mason have decorated their yard with Christmas lights for over 20 years.
Chris said his love for Christmas lights began when he was young.
“I've gone to church all my life and I absolutely love Jesus. One of the things when I was little, probably seven years old, I put lights on a peach tree, and from there every year that I can I put lights out somewhere,” Chris said.
The Sextons begin putting their lights up the second week of October. Chris said it takes a lot of time and hard work, but they enjoy every minute.
“The first thing I try to do is get my 60-foot tree decorated, and it takes me about 15 hours to do,” Chris said. “My son Mason, he does his crape myrtle, and that takes about 15 hours. But we do the rest of the stuff a little bit at a time.”
Mason said the crape myrtle is his favorite part of the display.
“We always worked on this crape myrtle together,” Mason said. “Now I like to do that myself. That has a lot of memories on that one tree.”
Julie said her favorite part of the display is in the backyard.
“My favorite thing is the cross in the backyard,” Julie said “That's the only thing we do in the backyard. You see all the Christmas lights and then when people get to the cul de sac, they see the cross in the backyard.”
Chris said he builds the cross himself and it takes up to 1,000 lights to illuminate.
The family said one of the best things about the tradition is the joy it brings to people.
“I love Christmas, and my favorite thing is the joy of people riding by,” Chris said. “In the mornings, I have them on for the school bus. This morning, they were going really slow and letting the kids soak it in.”
Julie said the tradition is growing.
“The neighbors across the street, when we first moved here, which was in 2003, in January, that Christmas we did the lights, they had left a thank you note, they were thanking us for doing them,” Julie said. ”For the past several years, they've been doing that, and they're in their 80s.”
Kathleen and David Rawls said they have over 250,000 lights in their display.
Kathleen said she loves to put up lights because of the beauty they bring.
“I think the answer is simply that lights are so beautiful,” Kathleen said. “People respond to lights, and we like to live in the light. Once you start putting out Christmas lights, it just becomes something that grows and grows and you feel like an artist.”
Kathleen said she and David will begin setting up their display when the weather is nice.
“We start in about September when the weather is beautiful, and there's no pressure to get a lot done,” Kathleen said.
Kathleen was recently injured in a car accident, but she still put up the lights.
“I ended up breaking my neck in two places,” Kathleen said. “Fortunately, I was not paralyzed or did not die. That was really a miracle. Even with the injury, I could hardly wait to get out there and get started.”
Kathleen said the lights give her an opportunity to be creative.
“You have this beautiful palette of ground and trees and bushes,” Kathleen said. “You can just let your mind wander and play with colors and design. Each year, we come up with something different.”
Kathleen said her favorite part of her display is the centerpiece.
“Definitely the manger, we have a 12-foot manger. It is the focal point of the display,” Kathleen said. “It plays well to have the manger as the focus because that's what the focus of Christmas is, of course, the birth of Christ. That's what we wanted to emphasize.”
The Sexton's home is located at 4136 Ashford Way, Gainesville, GA, 30507 in the Lyman Chase subdivision. The Rawls live right across the street.
