PRESTON – Visits to the Hollingsworth family’s lighted cutouts of cartoon characters has been a time-honored Christmas tradition in Franklin County. It started with Jeff’s father, Clair Hollingsworth, who did it for years and when he died Jeff Hollingsworth and his wife, Lee, kept it going.
“We tried to stop a few years ago and we got rid of everything,” he said. “But we had pressure to keep doing it.”
They resurrected their Christmas Light show after all their kids moved away and it was harder to get the help they needed. They had been doing it for 25 years and Jeff’s father did it for 25 years before that.
Their two daughters Afton Perry and Claire Spackman have moved back to Preston and are helping to keep the Christmas tradition going.
Year after year during the Christmas season cars loaded with children drive through the property at 1585 North State St. in Preston. The kid’s gander through the car widows and squeal with delight at seeing the magic of their favorite cartoon movie characters lit up with spotlights.
This year, there are 24 total displays lit with energy-saving LED lights.
“It’s not like you flip on a switch to turn on all the lights,” Hollingsworth said. “I have five different boxes at different locations I have to flip to turn on the lights every night.”
They are not close to the number of displays they had before they stopped. Making cartoon figures is a lot of work.
Hollingsworth said it sounds easy, but it takes a lot of time. They start in September building and painting new sets for the Christmas season.
“We project images using an opaque projector onto the plywood, trace them, cut them and paint them before putting them along the path,” Hollingsworth said. “I had a sister, a couple brothers and some of my kids help this year; without their help we would never have got it done.”
Some Preston High School students helped set up the displays this year.
After the Festival of Lights Parade the cars were lined up for a quarter of a mile with people trying to see the displays.
The number of cars going through the displays now has slowed down a bit since the Festival of Lights, but he expects traffic to pick up the closer it gets to Christmas.
“It makes it all worth it when we hear the kids smiling then pointing when they see their favorite movie character,” Hollingsworth said. “We have a donation can where people can donate money that we give to a charity.”
One thing about having an attraction like theirs during the holidays is that Jeff and Lee find it harder to leave home; however, now that some of their children have moved back they can watch over the displays.
The Hollingsworth family lighted displays are just one of Franklin County’s Christmas traditions that help bring the Spirit of Christmas to the community for the holidays.