Gilley’s Christmas Light Show to Appear on “The Great Christmas Light Fight” Monday, December 17th

A northeast Alabama tradition will be seen by millions next week, when Gilley’s Christmas Lights makes its debut on “The Great Christmas Light Fight” on ABC.  The show, which is now in its sixth big season, showcases the most spectacular Christmas displays in America. In each hour-long episode four families decorate their homes to the extreme in the hopes of winning the coveted Light Fight trophy and a $50,000 prize. 

Gilley’s Christmas Light Show will be on next Monday’s Great Christmas Light Fight episode (December 17th) – airing at 7:00pm on ABC 33/40.

Gilley’s Christmas Light Show, at 415 Gilley Road, Gadsden, is open from 5:00 – 9:00 nightly and is FREE of charge.  Lights WILL NOT be on if it is raining.

The Light Show continues through December 30th.

Gilley’s Christmas Lights Facebook Page

About “The Great Christmas Light Fight”

The Great Christmas Light Fight showcases the wildest and most spectacular Christmas displays in America. In each one-hour episode, four families from all around the country decorate their homes to the extreme in the hopes of winning the coveted Light Fight trophy and a $50,000 prize, with a total of $300,000 given away for the season. As the temperature cools down, the competition heats up when families invite us from out of the snow inside their homes to witness their fanatic Christmas décor for the very first time. In addition to all of the stunning inside/outside displays, the first ever “Heavyweights” episode will showcase light shows that have grown too large for any home. 

Produced by Fremantle, the hit holiday series is back for a sixth season with returning celebrity judges: lifestyle expert Carter Oosterhouse and interior designer Taniya Nayak.

The Great Christmas Light Fight comes from Fremantle (American Idol, America’s Got Talent). Brady Connell and Max Swedlow (both Extreme Makeover: Home Edition) are executive producers for the series. Jennifer Mullin is the executive producer for Fremantle.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED DECEMBER 11th, 2013

William Thornton/al.com/www.al.com

Republished by kind permission

There are times during the Christmas season when Mike Gilley, 62, and his older brother Donnie, 64, sit on the front porch of the old family place and watch the faces of people as they walk through the front yard.

For a few weeks at the end of every year in Ballplay, an Etowah County community on the edge of Cherokee County, cars, trucks and even buses will sometimes file past the Gilley place for a look at the lights. There are Christmas lights, locals will tell you, and then there are the Gilley lights.

There’s the elephant, and the airplane, and the Ferris wheel with teddy bear passengers. There is the fish snapping at a morsel swimming just beyond its jaws. There is Noah’s Ark and a rainbow, and a helicopter carrying Santa Claus. And to greet each visitor is a manger scene, complete with Jesus in a cradle being rocked by Joseph and Mary, while she churns butter with her other hand.

The light display is the work of the Gilley brothers’ late father, J.C. Gilley, who died in January 2002. For almost 20 years, Gilley, a man with at most an eighth-grade education, built each light display by hand, mixing lights and melded metal wire together in his shop using no plans other than the ones he drew up in his mind. The brothers now keep the lights going, as a second generation makes its way out to view them. And even now, 10 years later, they marvel at the work their father did.

“There’s nothing out here that I don’t understand how it works,” said Donnie. “But there’s no way I could figure out how to do it myself.”

Remembering the season

J.C. Gilley, his sons say, was something of a jack of all trades. He grew up in a saw-mill family, later working as a mechanic in his own shop in Piedmont by his 18th birthday. He built houses in Anniston, did some farming and retired as a diesel mechanic in Gadsden.

His sons remember him as a confident man who made them confident, who put people at ease and liked to stay busy.

And he loved Christmas. During the season, he and his wife Cassie would enjoy getting the family together, like most families. But it was important to him to remember what Christmas celebrates.

“It was very important to him,” Donnie said. “A lot of people don’t even know what Christmas actually is any more. Christmas is totally about the birth of our Lord and Savior. The lights and the decorations are fine, but that’s what it’s about.”

Neither of Gilley’s sons are sure exactly when their father started building his Christmas decorations. But the inspiration came from gas-powered model airplanes that he attached to a spinning contraption he made himself.

“One Christmas, he just pulled it out and put it up,” said Mike. “I suppose it was something he’d always thought about doing. Then each year, he added more and more, probably once a year.”

The displays would take about a month to finish, and Gilley would set to work during the part of the year when he wasn’t otherwise occupied on the farm. For one piece, the elephant with the moving trunk, he consulted a picture in an encyclopedia. But he worked out a plan for doing it in his head.

“My dad was different from most other people,” Mike said, with a laugh. “He would figure it out before he got started. He would say, ‘I built it last night.’”

As the yard outside the house he built in the 1940s filled up with lights each season, the number of people who ventured out began to grow. And so did the number of people who would give him donations to keep the lights going. Gilley would not charge admission, but he eventually did place a donation box for those who wanted to give.

The Gilley brothers remain coy as to how much it takes to keep the lights burning each Christmas season. “We couldn’t do it without people donating,” Donnie said.

Carrying on

J.C. Gilley, in the fall of 2001, added a final touch – a climbing elf, dressed in green and red. The almost life-sized figure didn’t work so well to start, and then its creator’s health began to fail. Even though he was too weak to get out and fix the elf, he gave Mike directions on repairing it.

“When I did it like he told me, it worked,” Mike said.

Gilley died just a few weeks after Christmas. Once the funeral was over, the brothers resolved they would keep the lights burning one more year. They set up a memorial to their father so visitors could write their own remembrances.

“It was very fascinating to read the things people wrote about coming, and about him,” Donnie said. “After that first year, they begged us to keep the lights going. People said they had brought their kids to see them, and they wanted to bring their grandkids.”

Since then, the only year the lights didn’t burn was 2009, when Cassie had a heart attack while setting up the lights. Her sickness extended into December, when she died. But the lights resumed the next year.

The Gilleys say they still get people who turn up thinking the lights had long since stopped coming up each Christmas after the death of their parents. They have had visitors drive from as far away as Atlanta. It takes about a month to get all the displays up, and they burn from Thanksgiving to the weekend after Christmas.

Most nights, one or both of the brothers sit on the porch, warmed by a space heater and the sight of families enjoying the work of their father.

“Some nights, the people are just everywhere, laughing and talking,” said Ronnie, his voice trembling. “To watch the joy on people’s faces makes a world of difference.”

The Gilley Christmas lights are located on Gilley Road in Ballplay. Go down County Road 71 (Main Street) from Hokes Bluff about seven miles just past Beans and Greens Restaurant. Gilley Road is on the left. The house is less than a mile down on the left.

 

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