Justin Lenhard promises that his family’s Christmas light show at Larry G. Crites Memorial Park in Festus will impress those who stop by to see it.
The Lenhard Family Light Show opens the evening of Saturday, Nov. 26. It will run from 7-10 p.m. that night. After that, it will be open from 6-10 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays until Dec. 11 and from 6-10 p.m. every night from Dec. 15 through Jan. 1.
“It’s a free show unlike anything you’ve seen before,” Lenhard said. “It talks to you. It’s 70,000 lights perfectly synced to Christmas music that you listen to in your car. We’ve been working on this all year.”
Lenhard, 42, his wife, Princess, 39, and their sons Liam, 9, and Ethan, 7, who live in Pevely, put the show together, with help from Festus city employees. They are using the same structure in the park built by Festus city employees for the Lenhard family’s Halloween light show.
Lenhard said that the Halloween light show wowed many people, but he believes the Christmas light show will top it.
“The props for the Christmas light show are more high density,” he said. “The lights are closer together, so there are more defined characters than with the Halloween show. It’s more dense than the Halloween show, so you get some really cool effects.”
Those who visit the park for the light show may tune their radios to 99.7 to hear the Christmas music the show is set to.
“There are 20 songs in the show,” Lenhard said. “It depends on you (how long the show lasts). If you stay for all 20 songs, it’s about 70 minutes.”
The family uses multiple computers to operate the light show.
Once again, the Lenhards will set up a donation box next to the light display to collect money for the Jefferson County Rescue Mission.
“We collected just shy of $500 from the Halloween show for the Rescue Mission,” Lenhard said.
He said the light show project is a fun activity for him and his family.
“It’s our hobby,” Lenhard said. “It teaches the kids how to build and do computer work and coding. My wife helps with the songs and sometimes with the beat counts.”
Lenhard said he can only guess at how many people saw the Halloween display over the weeks it was open in the park, but it had to be “thousands.”
“There were people who came all the way from St. Charles, St. Peters, Red Bud, Ill.,” he said.
Barb Lowry, the Festus recreation and tourism director, said the city is happy to provide space for the Lenhards and their light shows.
“The Halloween lights were a huge success,” Lowry said.
“They were so well received. People came from other counties to see the lights.”
For more information about the Christmas light show, visit the Lenhard Family Light Show Facebook page.
“It has the list, in order, of the songs,” he said.