GREENVILLE – September 9th is the annual kickoff date for setting up the Dick Brown Christmas light display at his home on Requarth Pike just east of the Greenville city limits.
The light display is a year-round labor of love that brings joy to children and adults alike during the Christmas season.
“It took me until March 24th to get everything down because we take a month off in the winter to go on vacation. I took three months, May, June, and July, testing everything, and then today I began setting up the displays.”
“I can’t do out in the grass because the grass grows to the end of October,” continued Brown. “We’ll get things in the trees and bushes before that.”
Brown is expecting his fifth grandchild right in the middle of his project of setting up the Christmas displays.
“We have another situation this year,” he said. “My daughter Betsy is going to have a baby on October 28, so that is going to be right in the middle of when I am usually putting things out.”
Brown is the father of Brandy Hill, GHS class of 2003, and Betsy Reiber, a 2005 GHS graduate.
Dick and his late wife, Dianne, started their first outdoor light display in 1983 with a stop at Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland store located in Frankenmuth, Michigan.
“It’s the world’s largest Christmas store since 1945,” Brown stated. “We go every year. Diane and I just happened to stumble onto it as we were coming back from Mackinac in 1983, and every year we’ve been back up there.”
“Since Diane passed away, Brandy and Betsey go with me up there as a family tradition each year,” added Brown.
There are 30 Mickey Mouse lighted blow molds and many lights, too numerous for Dick to give an accurate count.
“It is so hard to tell the number of lights,” Brown said. “It’s not the way you used to be when we were able to count the number of lights you have out because everything has multiples. I’m not sure of the exact number, but we’re increasingly using LED lights because they consume less energy. You can’t go all with LED because they are too dim, you have to have some of the bright lights mixed in to make it show better.”
In 2023, Brown passed out 15,000 large six-inch Christmas candy canes, with the number dropping to 12,000 in 2024.
“We just pass out the big canes,” Brown noted. “Most of them are the big Brach’s six-inch canes. They used to be a dollar a box for 12, but then they went to $1.25, and last year they were $1.75 a box, so they will probably be two dollars for 12, but that’s still not bad. Some of those Archie McPhee ones are over a dollar and a half apiece. They are eight dollars for six canes, for those specialized ones.”
Over the years, many students and classes have helped Dick Brown distribute the candy canes to the thousands of welcomed visitors who drive through his long driveway up to his house, including: the Varsity G, Key Club, the National Honor Society, the Flower Club, and the Wavaires.
