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We’ve been here so long, they had to bend the highway around us.
Gary Reynolds, Owner, Reynolds Farm Equipment | 25th Free Christmas Lights Display
Thinking about that statement from my Uncle Gary this evening had me thinking about the longstanding tradition that the 25th annual Christmas Lights Display became. It started with an old John Deere “D” tractor that was parked out on the west end of our sidewalk even when my brother and I, and our cousins, were just kids (we’re in our late 40’s and early 50’s now, mind you). When we moved from downtown Fishers in 1972 to our current location in Fishers, that old tractor itself was a staple to our dealership image; you couldn’t miss it. In fact, today, it’s on loan to our good friends down the road at City BBQ as part of their outdoor display, and they’re just great neighbors!
Back in December of 1992, we decided to decorate that old “D” on the sidewalk, with the traditional small light strands and even made the metal wheels and lugs look like they were turning by adding chasing lights to them. Customers would stop in and remark “you oughta do more,” and after some prodding, well, we did. That next year in 1993, our then-welder extraordinaire, Brian Jacobs, helped us by fabricating some reindeer antlers out of steel and even a red nose for Rudolph. We adorned the antlers to the fronts of lawn tractors that were still in their metal shipping crates, pointed them upward towards the sky and it looked like they, all decorated with traditional and chasing lights as well, were pulling Old St. Nick thru the sky with Santa taking the driver’s seat of a John Deere Gator, of course. That got a lot of comments as well as the attention of the Associated Press, who photographed that piece and put it in newspapers all throughout the United States. It even got comments all the way in Hawaii of all places, believe it or not.
So in 1994 when my Uncle and a group of creative employers (and thinkers, of course) got talking, they said “how about we build a huge, outdoor Christmas lights display.” And so, well, they did. And nearly 25 years later, you kinda know the rest of the story. Or have seen it anyways. If not, just know this; it’s always a FREE Christmas Lights Display. Always. To know our late- Grandparents (and parents), “Mac” & Arline Reynolds, you can’t begin to ever imagine how much that those two truly loved Christmas. And for more reasons that probably even I would ever begin to know. And with it, the Christmas lights as well. In fact, Grandma would be so nuts about the display, that even when she’d stop into the store in the middle of Summer, she’d ask “now, we’re still doing the Christmas lights, aren’t we?” Of course she knew; she just wanted to make sure that WE knew it too.
The world is a crazy place these days, and we’re bombarded by more social media than one can nearly fathom. We all get caught up in it, as well as life itself. So, we hope that you come visit the lights display this Season and just take in the joy that our two “elves,” Jordan Risch and Brock Phifer, have helped guide and install this year, with a little help from a couple of other elves as well. Sure, some nights traffic may be a little heavy or slow getting down Reynolds Drive, but we hope that it worth the drive. So, load up the family, grab some hot chocolate and come for a visit. Our drive-thru is open until at least 9pm each evening, with some evenings even longer. We’ll look for you at our 25th annual Christmas Lights Display. Drive safe.
Oh, and most importantly… Merry Christmas to you and yours this Season.
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