MOULTRIE — (Editor’s note: The following is a first person observation of downtown Moultrie during the Christmas holidays. Observer staffer Adelia Ladson describes the canopy of lights as Christmas “magic.”)



One of my most favorite things about Moultrie is our “Canopy of Lights” that goes up every year for Christmas. Since, I live and work downtown, I get to enjoy this fairyland of lights from Thanksgiving night through the end of the year, every evening when I walk home.

“Moultrie’s Downtown Canopy of Lights makes the magic of Christmas come alive! This is a wonderful tradition that we all enjoy and eagerly look forward to each year. It is truly awesome to walk under the thousands of colored lights streaming down from the courthouse and across the downtown streets — a spectacle that warmly enhances the Christmas spirit in us all,” said Mayor Bill McIntosh.

From what I’ve been able to find out, the Canopy of Lights seemed to really become an “event” around 1945 or 1946. According, to local historians Jack and Faye Bridwell, it was another way of celebrating the end of W.W.II.

“They were jubilant when the war was over. This was certainly a great way to celebrate it,” Faye said.

However, Jack found, in an Observer article dated 1934, a reference to the square being decorated for Christmas by lights being placed along the sidewalks in front of the stores with a strand running from each corner of the square to the top of the courthouse — only four strands — and then a big white star was placed on top. This gave it the appearance of a giant Christmas tree.

“This was the method for the next few years,” he said.

Later, after they added on to the light display and expanded it to the outer streets, the phrase Canopy of Lights came into use.

“I’ve been in just about every county in the state of Georgia and this is the prettiest. It celebrates the time of year,” said Jack.

He said he could remember when his father would put them into the car and they would drive around the square.

“That was ‘seeing the lights’. As long as I can remember, it’s been Thanksgiving night,” he said.

He also said that the stores being open on that night goes back as long as he can remember. He said that before he left for Vietnam he and Faye drove around the square and looked at the lights.

“It’s always been a special time for me even before I got so involved,” he told me.

Jack has been involved (in a very special way) with the turning on of the lights on Thanksgiving night for the past 15 years.

Nothing gets me into the holiday mood more than seeing those coils and coils of cable that start to appear sometime around the first of November. Roger King’s city utitlity staff, though, start way before most people have even begun to think about the Christmas holidays.

“We usually try to have them up a week before Thanksgiving,” said King.

Then, they stay up until the first working day after New Year’s Day, he said. The lights come on at dark and go off at about 2 a.m. each night.

“They’re on a timer,” he added.

It looks so effortlessly beautiful but King and his staff can tell you that a lot of work goes into getting it up each year. And the City of Moultrie Utilities Department has it down to a science. The first thing they do, he said, is to test the bulbs, which he estimates number around 10,000.

“And they’re low-wattage,” he added.

He said they really don’t use that much electricity at all and there’s about 250 streamers on the roads and about 27 that come down from the courthouse.

“Even since I’ve been here, a few side streets have been added,” he said.

He said the only other addition that he remembers has been the large decorated Christmas tree. He said there was an old “scrubby” cedar tree that they used to decorate, but it was taken out and the artificial tree you see now was used instead.

Interestingly enough, King helped design the current lay-out of the canopy when he worked for McLean Engineering Company 20 years ago. He said that in the 1960’s when they redid the courthouse, it made it virtually impossible to put the star on the very top of the building. He said the stars that are there now were purchased and donated by Moultrie High School Class of 1963.

He said it takes about two to three weeks to get the canopy up and then they will turn them on during the day just to make sure they are all working before the Lights! Lights! event.

“At one point, there was only a handful of people who went to see the lights and Amy Johnson was one of those leaders who made Thanksgiving night an event. It used to be that we had four different switches on the corners and policemen were responsible for turning the lights on. At some point in time, we consolidated it,” King said.

 Johnson, Main Street Director, said that the canopy of lights in Downtown Moultrie have always been turned on Thanksgiving night but the lighting has not always been accompanied by open shops and thousands of people.

“As a child I remember going downtown to see the lights shine brightly as my parents would drive my brother and I through downtown,” she said.

She said that she felt fortunate that she was able to come back home to Moultrie in 1998 and work for the City of Moultrie as the Main Street director.

“Thanksgiving 1998, I remember going downtown and seeing many people walking around under the lights, but with no planned activities. The next year, in 1999, Downtown Moultrie Merchants, with the help of the Main Street Program, planned a huge event for Thanksgiving 1999,” Johnson said.

Steve Lazarus, owner of Lazarus on the square, said that he remembered being tired of seeing all of the mall stores “getting the jump” on Moultrie’s downtown stores with their early Christmas hours.

“I thought all of Moultrie was leaving town to shop at the malls on Black Friday. We had a great event going on downtown on Thanksgiving night, so, I thought why don’t we open our stores and beat them to the punch. I suggested it at the downtown meeting and it passed...and the rest is history,” he said.

Johnson said that evening, in 1999, there were 15 shops open, carriage rides, pony rides, giveaways and Santa. She said they offered punch cards to help get the customers into the shops where after five punches from five different shops, a customer could win prizes at the end of the event.

“Our 1999 event brought about 3,000 to downtown. Each year since then, the event has grown with over 10,000 each year in attendance,” she said.

In 2004, she said, the carriage rides had to be stopped because the horses could not get through the streets because of all the people. The punch cards were also dropped because the event had grown so large.

“Since that time, we have added Santa’s live reindeer with this real sleigh (bells and all), entertainment on the stage, many costumed characters, a train, and thousands of people,” Johnson said.

She said now the event starts, at 6 p.m., with Santa arriving in his sleigh driven by six of his “trusty reindeer” and he leads the crowd in a count-down and, “magically,” he lights the lights overhead and the community tree. What some people may not realize is that the “magic” is achieved with the help of Cason Friedlander, who has flipped the switch for the past five years, said  King.

“He just gets so excited about the Christmas lights,” King added.

“It is a great feeling to hear the crowd roar in excitement when they see the lights come on,” said Johnson.

After the lights are lit, Santa leaves the stage and goes over to the courthouse steps where he is ready to visit with children and have his picture made with them, courtesy of the Moultrie Junior Women’s Club with their traditional “Pictures with Santa” activity. Santa’s reindeer also remain for photo-ops.

Lights!Lights! is sponsored by the City of Moultrie, Downtown Moultrie Association and Colquitt County and it is organized by Johnson and the staff of Main Street and the marketing department.  Other events during the holiday season will include the annual Christmas Parade on Dec. 13, starting at 6:30 p.m., For more information about these events, call Johnson at 229-890-5455.