William Miller House Blog » Tacky Light Tour http://www.williammillerhouse.com/blog Richmond Viriginia Lodging Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:31:59 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Lights: Tacky and Classy for the Holidays http://www.williammillerhouse.com/blog/2010/12/lights-tacky-and-classy-for-the-holidays/ http://www.williammillerhouse.com/blog/2010/12/lights-tacky-and-classy-for-the-holidays/#comments Wed, 29 Dec 2010 21:29:25 +0000 innkeeper http://www.williammillerhouse.com/blog/?p=1231


Lights, lights, and more lights! Light displays, both tacky and classy, abound in Richmond between Thanksgiving and the New Year.

Are these really Tacky Lights, or simply Christmas spirit?

Homeowners across the central Virginia’s  metropolitan area have decked their houses in holiday lights, blow-up decorations, store-bought decorations, home-made decorations – all vying to outdo each other with more, better, and over-the-top displays lighting up their homes with Christmas spirit beginning the Friday after Thanksgiving and ending with the New Year.

But homeowners are not the only ones who go “over the top.”  Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens GardenFest of Lights provides a fantastic display, decorating each garden, water feature, and path with a myriad of lights.  The rose garden even has rose lights for the holiday season. And, The GradenFest of Lights will be on display until January 10th!

This fabulous peacock in lights inhabits the lawn below the conservatory at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens

Some of Richmond’s homes have been featured on national television, of course, local television, books and publications, blogs, newspaper articles, even coffee table books.  This phenomenon dates back at least to 1986 and seems to grow exponentially every year.  Patricia Cornwall even mentions Richmond’s Tacky Lights in her book: “Black Notice” saying that Marino’s house was lighting up the sky like an amusement park!

Blow-up Santa and other figures complete this Tacky Lights scene

The sky is aglow with Tacky Lights

There are city blocks of folks who band together and decorate to be included on the Tacky Light Tour, homes along Monument Avenue and in the Fan are all aglow, cul-de-sacs and blocks in the burbs join together in pacts to decorate, and individual homeowners just go all out and begin decorating Labor Day to be ready for their grand illumination Thanksgiving weekend.

More Tacky Lights!

Can you count the lights in this Tacky Light display?

And, then, there’s Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens who decorate their gardens and conservatory as the Gardenfest of Lights.  This year’s theme is Fire & Ice, combining the Hans Frabel’s glass sculptures with their more traditional holiday elements and lights. The gardens also decorate the conservatory and the educational center.  You’ll even find trains in a setting of miniature structures crafted from natural elements.

One of the houses constructed of natural elements that is part of the model train setup in Lewis Ginter's conservatory

Don’t miss these very Richmond holiday traditions this year or next! It gets better every year!

]]> http://www.williammillerhouse.com/blog/2010/12/lights-tacky-and-classy-for-the-holidays/feed/ 0 Tacky Light Tour http://www.williammillerhouse.com/blog/2009/12/tacky-light-tour/ http://www.williammillerhouse.com/blog/2009/12/tacky-light-tour/#comments Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:55:00 +0000 Nuggett http://www.williammillerhouse.com/blog/2009/12/tacky-light-tour/


December 23 was a big night around our Richmond Bed and Breakfast, here in the Historic Fan District. We had arranged for a limo to pick us up and take us to see the houses all gussied up for the tacky lights tour. I think tacky lights may be a Richmond thing because I don’t remember them back in Maryland. I changed into my people garb – canines are not allowed in the limo and went along for the ride.
Tacky Lights are pretty specific, in order to be included on the tour, the house and yard has to have 40,000 lights! Can you imagine? Well, you don’t have to imagine; here are a couple of photos.
Every square inch seems to be covered in lights and there’s a limo in front! I wonder how they get those lights all the way up in the tree! One stop we made was where a mother and son live next door to each other and both houses were decorated to the nines! These two homes present the longest running display – going on 32 years now. The approximate light count is one million, powered by 66 breakers and, according to the owners his extra expense for electricity for the two houses is in the $6,000 to $8,000 range. The owner told the tale of a young man in his 20′s who used to live in Virginia but moved up to the DC area. He drove down just to see the display at 9604 and 9606 Asbury Court; he was worried that with the economy, it might not be up this year. But, despite the financial strains (he’s in construction, his wife has a baby-sitting business), he believes he has to honor the commitment he’s made to the community. What a fabulous gift to us all…..
There was music playing, a choir of lighted angels, Santa, penguins, landing lights with a sleigh and reindeer coming down just like an airplane, penguins, snowmen, candy canes and every other symbol of the holidays. I made a few notes, just in case I can ever convince my people that we should try out for the tacky lights tour. We actually have enough yard and space that we could use up 40,000 lights very easily. But, I guess I better start saving my money now so I can help pay the electric bill.
This house even had a train along the side, a nativity scene, lollipops, reindeer, stars, just about anything you can imagine. This next house was so over the top that the next door neighbor had a pretty innovative way of decorating his own house. Check it out!
Well, the tacky lights tour runs from Thanksgiving through New Year’s. If you don’t have time to catch it this year, please make arrangements to see it next year! You can stay with us here at the William Miller House and see all the fantasy of this very old Richmond tradition which has been featured in a 2006 holiday special on the learning channel and in the 2007 book “Merry Christmas America! Megawatt Displays Across the USA.” Signing off for now and wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!  Nuggett, Official B&B Greeter
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