BY THE time most Thanksgiving turkeys are stuffed and placed in an oven, Jason and Kelly Farris have already logged countless hours pulling out their stockpile of Christmas decorations. For the last decade, the fun couple has made it a habit to “go big or go home” when adorning their home for the holidays. As a result, the Farris household becomes known as that house in the neighborhood. You know the one — it’s the one you can’t miss. In this instance, it’s the house with synchronized lights flashing in the yard and a cluster of cars constantly camped out at the end of the driveway.
The merry and bright home, located on Settler’s Trace off of Riley Creek Road, is a sight to see. As soon as you pull on to the street, you will find green, red, and white lights prancing across the Farris’ lawn like reindeer hooves on Christmas Eve night. The light display with well over 80,000 lights is synchronized to four to five songs. The music is transmitted over an FM radio station, providing visitors with a complete sensory experience, and not just a visual one. Jason and his daughter Olivia select the music each year. Jason shared, “We let Livi pick one song each year, and it’s her song. Last year she picked a song unrelated to Christmas — a Paw Patrol song, actually.” Kelly laughed and said, “We love it. Livi gets out there each night as if she’d never seen it before.”
As one might imagine, a light show of this size has drawn in crowds beyond Olivia over the last 10 years. In fact, the house began having so many visitors that the Farris family decided to start taking donations in 2014. That first year, the couple donated all the proceeds to the Ronald McDonald House in Nashville. Kelly explained, “Livi was a premature baby. She had a long [neonatal intensive care unit] stay, and Jason and I had a very humbling experience staying in the Ronald McDonald House when she was born. Donating there first was a no-brainer.”
Kelly continued, “Next, we did the Tullahoma Toys for Tots with the local fire department. However, they seemed to have a lot of support already.” This fact led the couple to do some digging around. They found 5 Loaves 4 Kids, and the Isaiah 117 House and decided that these nonprofits would be the next benefactors. 5 Loaves 4 Kids works toward ensuring no child goes hungry in our community. The Isaiah 117 House’s mission is to care for children awaiting foster placement. Jason concluded, “We figured that most people donating their money were locals. Therefore, we wanted to give to the community that we live in.” Last year, the family was able to give away well over $1,500.
The entire process of hosting the light show is a significant labor of love. Jason said, “Just programming the music and the lights is about 30 to 40 hours of work. That’s not counting the month and a half of weekends and nights I spend setting everything up. Each day when I get off work, I put on a headlamp and go out to set up spotlights, run cords, and secure zip-ties. Most people don’t realize how much work actually goes into a show like this.” Luckily, Jason does have some help. Kelly shared, “We definitely could not do it without the help of some family members because it is a lot of work and a lot of hours. We are also very grateful for our neighbors. We have a very supportive neighborhood.”
When asked why they keep investing their time, money, energy, and resources into this festive light show, Jason responded, “We do it because we love it.” Kelly chimed in, “There have been many times when we’re in the kitchen cooking supper, and we hear children screaming with excitement or hear them singing along to the music.” Instances like that become priceless memories. “One specific time,” Kelly continued, “I could hear “taps” begin to play. This coincides with the part of our light show where our American flag is lit up and spotlighted. I just so happened to look outside the window, and there was a man standing alone. He had gotten out of his car and stood with his hand over his heart. That has stuck with me for years.” It is for images like this and for reasons like keeping children properly fed that Jason and Kelly keep stringing lights. GN
