Berks County Living » 2010

Oh Really?

11.29.10
WEB EXCLUSIVE:Check out a Half Million Holiday Lights at Gring’s Mill!
10:41 am

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By Rebecca VanderMeulen

When do you start decorating your house for Christmas? The day after Thanksgiving? When weather forecasters first predict snow?

Preparations for the annual Holiday Lights display at the Gring’s Mill Recreation Area in Spring Township begin months before that. Toward the end of September, maintenance workers begin wrapping trees with the first of the half million lights that glow throughout the park on December nights.

“They’re out there every day putting lights up,” says Becky Richards, the county’s recreation superintendent. “Every year, it might just be a little different.”

County maintenance workers Keith Beck and Mike Kochel are the minds behind each year’s holiday display. A map shows the location of each wreath, strand of lights and illuminated animal. While the overall layout doesn’t change much year-to-year, it has to be tweaked every fall – not just for the sake of variety, but because the trees themselves are constantly growing and altering their shapes. The location of electrical boxes is also an important consideration.

Over the years, workers have learned some tricks to keeping all the lights on. For example, Kochel notes that a dab of petroleum jelly at the base of a bulb will keep the socket from corroding in the wintry moisture. And the county has gradually switched the Gring’s Mill lights to efficient light-emitting diode bulbs, which now comprise about 90 percent of the display. These bulbs have one distinct advantage over standard light bulbs – the majority of a strand stays on even if one bulb goes out. But Richards says the next challenge will be to figure out how to drive away squirrels that are often tempted to chomp on wires. A standard holiday light will deliver an electric jolt to the squirrel’s mouth, but LED lights don’t.

The annual Gring’s Mill display began 23 years ago with just 15,000 lights, Richards says. Since then it’s grown into a holiday tradition with nightly musical performances and a place to visit Santa Claus each night before Christmas. At least 10,000 visitors came last year, Richards says, including some from out of state. She often sees families visit the park to have their Christmas card photos taken. Perhaps that doesn’t come as a surprise, given the pastoral beauty and jolly atmosphere created by the glowing lights and holiday music.

“When you’re coming into the gates at Gring’s Mill, all the hustle and bustle of the holiday seems to fall away,” Richards says. “I can’t ever stop smiling when I’m walking through here.”

Like the lights themselves, the mainstays of the holiday attraction remain much the same year after year – Santa’s perch, the musical entertainment by the fireplace in the park’s barn, the model train and miniature town on the bridge. But there are some changes in place for this year’s event, which has the theme “Winter Wonderland.”

For one thing, the annual children’s craft workshop, a free event scheduled for Dec. 5, has been revised to offer additional choices. This year children can opt to be entertained by songs and stories performed by teens from the Yocum Institute for Arts Education, Wyomissing.

And those who buy each year’s ornament depicting the display can look forward to the 2010 version, which shows a photo of last year’s tableau in a light snowfall.

For next year’s ornament, photographers are invited to submit their own entries in a contest of pictures of the Gring’s Mill Holiday Lights. The winning photo will be featured on ornaments sold next year.

CHECK IT OUT!

Holiday Lights

Gring’s Mill Recreation Area

Dec. 3-30, 6-9 p.m. | closed Mondays, Tuesdays, Christmas Eve and Christmas day

admission $2 for adults, free for children accompanied by adults | parking on site

www.co.berks.pa.us/parks | 610.374.2944| rrichards@countyofberks.com

Children’s craft workshop

Dec. 5, 1-4 p.m.

Gring’s Mill barn

free admission

Entertainment schedule

nightly 6:30-8:30 pm