Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
There are two kinds of visitors to Anderson Christmas Lights, according to Ben Phillips: those who have never been and those who think they have already seen it.
“Our Andersonians go, ‘Well, I’ve been,’” Phillips said, with the familiarity of someone who has heard this before. “You have no idea what’s changed.”
With Thanksgiving approaching, the grounds at 150 Rose Valley Blvd. are still a work in progress with volunteers moving among displays, extension cords crossing the grass, figures awaiting the electricity that will give them something like life. By daylight, a Christmas light show reveals its considerable dependence on wiring. It takes about a month of work to produce the transformation visitors will see after dark.
The show opens Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26. For newcomers, Phillips offered a brief introduction: a 33-year family tradition that visitors drive through, with opportunities to “get out and go see Santa, drink hot chocolate.”
Then came his assessment.
“And it is amazing.”
Some of this year’s additions have had previous lives. Nearby stood the skating bears, formerly residents of Roper Mountain’s holiday lights in Greenville County, which closed years ago. Anderson Christmas Lights has taken in many of those displays, Phillips said. Returning visitors will find additions “all over the place,” some standing 12 to 15 feet tall.
“So it’s going big,” he said.
Phillips expects about 450 displays this year, although he has not finished counting. The scale is perhaps easier to appreciate one bulb at a time. Along five and a half miles of roadway, lights are spaced every 24 inches — roughly 14,500 bulbs before a single reindeer enters the calculation. Old Man Winter accounts for another 3,300.
Such abundance has an electric bill’s less conspicuous companion: the cost of the bulbs themselves. Last year, Phillips said, the organization spent more than $40,000 in donated funds on bulbs alone. Hot chocolate sales help with expenses; sponsors and donations help sustain the undertaking.
For visitors ready to leave the car, the Christmas Village offers hot chocolate, s’mores to roast, Santa Claus, wagon rides and a general store stocked by local vendors. Many of the crafts will be familiar to shoppers at area farmers markets and craft shows, though the merchandise will be dressed for the season.
“We’ve picked the best of the best,” Phillips said.
Superheroes and princesses from White Knight Productions will also make appearances, and a bakery will offer sugar cookies.
The stage will feature live entertainment every night, with local school groups and artists sharing the season’s schedule with performers from farther afield. This year’s lineup includes a Nashville recording artist, two performers from “America’s Got Talent” and a Broadway singer returning to a stage she performed on when she was younger.
The Santa’s Village schedule and activity details will be posted on the organization’s Facebook page and website.
Phillips hears regularly from people for whom the drive through the lights has offered a welcome interruption. Some arrive at the end of a terrible day.
“They see the lights, and they go, you know, ‘This really made my day,’” he said.
Admission is $15 per carload or $30 per bus, with cash and cards accepted. Behind the spectacle is Anderson Lights of Hope, a nonprofit that supports local charities through the event. Those partner organizations also supply the people who help assemble it.
“We don’t get to keep a dime of that,” Phillips said. “The organization doesn’t keep a dime of it. We give every bit of that back to the charities that help us set this thing up.”
The arrangement makes the volunteers essential twice over: they help create the show that, in turn, helps support their work in the community.
“If it weren’t for them, this would not happen,” Phillips said.
Middle and high school students, including members of service clubs and Beta clubs, earn community service hours on the grounds. College students come for similar reasons, often to fulfill graduation requirements. For younger volunteers, Phillips noted, the work can strengthen a college application and help with scholarship opportunities.
He considers the chance to meet people an even greater benefit.
On the day of the interview, volunteers included members of Trinity United Methodist Church and other area residents. Carol Burdette, a former Pendleton mayor associated with the Chamber of Commerce, has also been among those helping.
Some groups can spare only one or two people. Phillips welcomes them.
“That’s okay,” he said. “Send who you can.”
He would like 20 to 30 volunteers a day. That afternoon, about a dozen were working behind him.
“They are some hard-working individuals,” he said. “Let me tell you something, I love every one of them.”
The work will outlast the holiday. The show runs nightly from 5:30 to 10 p.m. through Dec. 25. On Dec. 26, the process reverses: takedown begins, and Phillips will need volunteers to help return the illuminated landscape to its component parts.
Event updates will appear at AndersonChristmasLights.org and on the show’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. Phillips credits a student marketing team drawn from Anderson University, Lander University and Clemson University with helping spread the word.
“You put three colleges together and get the brains going,” he said. “You get good marketing.”
For all the hundreds of displays, Phillips had little difficulty choosing a favorite. It is new this year: a set of scales of justice donated by a local law firm he declined to name.
The display, he said, is “not what you think.”
On that point, he offered no further illumination. Visitors will have to come and see.
