Neighborhood sets limit on holiday lights
One of the houses included in The Eagle’s video of animated Wichita lights displays last year, Dave Williams’ Lights on Barrington near 21st and Ridge Road, will be out of the rotation this year.
A change in the rules of his homeowners association narrowing the window of when Christmas lights can be up – Nov. 1 to March 1 – means that Williams no longer has enough time to put up the tens of thousands of lights he had.
He said he’s heard reports of similar rules from Christmas-lights friends in other parts of the country. He said he has no problem getting the lights down in a timely manner. But “we’d have to start putting up the roof lights by the second week of October,” Williams said. “We work full time. If we don’t start that early we never get it done.”
He said the neighborhood had no problem with his display, and didn’t expect to curtail it by the new rule, but there were some homeowners who were leaving their lights up all year.
Williams and his wife, Mindy, are going back to a simple, more elegant look this year, he said, and he has sold most of his lights to some of the other big players in Wichita’s Christmas-lights market.
Does your neighborhood association have any limitations on lights? E-mail acalovich@wichitaeagle.com.
Share notable lights displays
There are certain houses that are over the top in Christmas lights, destinations that people try to drive by every year. And we want you to let us know about the ones that you see, or about your own, if you think it’s worth a trip.
We’ll put together a list of must-see houses online. If you know of one, e-mail the address and a brief description – and a photo if you have one – to acalovich@wichitaeagle.com. Put “lights” in the subject line. You also can leave the address by calling 316-268-6596.
This story was originally published November 21, 2014 at 10:09 AM with the headline "Neighborhood sets limit on holiday lights."