Northern Lights -- Preston Displays Brighten the Holiday

The spirit of Christmas is alive, thriving and shining its beacon of light in Preston.

Every holiday season, the city holds its Festival of Lights, encouraging businesses and houses around town to decorate their buildings with lights for the holidays.

While countless houses and businesses hang their lights for decoration, Fairview residents Joe and Julie Hickle create Christmas lights for a living. The Hickles run Creative Wire Art, a small company that can make anything out of Christmas lights.

"We've been in business about seven years, and we've built everything you see here," Joe said about the light designs displayed in the Preston City Park. "It's a wintertime job."

Christmas lights are more than just a job for the Hickles however; it is a passion and an art.

"If I didn't enjoy doing this, I would not be here," Joe said. "I just enjoy making things out of light. I love to take a display and make something out of it -- make skaters and have people recognize it."

Julie said, "I'd like to make this my living, make it my life."

The Hickles said that ultimately they would like the lights in the Preston City Park to equal that of the lights in Ogden's City Park, but they are thrilled with the level of Christmas spirit displayed in Preston.

"The community is awesome. It's incredible what it takes to pull this thing off," Joe said.

Nancy Jensen, chairwoman of the festival committee, said the best part of working with the festival was meeting and working with new people and taking part in a tradition the community loves and embraces.

"When people work for something, then it becomes dear to them," Jensen said.

Joe said the work that goes into the production of the festival is one of the most tremendous aspects of the event.

"The city is amazing; they spend hours and hours just hanging things up," Joe said. "They've got hundreds of cords strung all over the place that need constant maintenance."

The maintenance resembles the common household dilemma of one defective light destroying an entire strand of lights.

"Lights are lights. It's not foolproof -- they are going to go out," Joe said.

Joe said he spends many hours testing lights and discovering which ones are working and which ones require replacement. One might assume Joe is crazy for taking on this monstrous task with tens of thousands of lights.

"You'd have to be a little crazy to want to do this," he said.

Joe said he would like to see the festival expand in the future but is very happy with where it is right now.

"Of course I'd love it if Richmond or Smithfield or some other town wanted to have something like Preston has, but you have to have the spirit of Christmas in your town for that to happen," he said.

Throughout the project, those involved have discovered the task is much greater than hanging a few lights under a rain gutter.

"It really is a lot more work than I thought it would be," Jensen said.

Jensen said that within the festival committee there are a number of sub-committees dealing with everything from lights and activities to production and advertising.

The activities surrounding the festival have been highlights of the holiday season, Jensen said.

"We had the festival feast, which is a prime-rib candlelight dinner, as our primary fundraiser in November," Jensen said.

She also mentioned the annual Lamplighter Award as one of the highlights. The award honors a prominent member of the community and was selected with this year's "volunteers lighting the community" theme in mind.

"People in the community are nominated and then a selection committee chooses one," Jensen said.

"They were awarded because of the volunteerism they have done for the community throughout the years, and looking through the nominations this year, that is what we looked for," Jensen said.

Other activities surrounding the festival included a light parade, various entertainment and bed races, where beds with wheels are raced down the street.

Jensen encouraged Utah State University students to participate in the bed races in future years.

"We always have bed races, and it would be a lot of fun for a college student to get a team together and participate in the bed races," Jensen said. "If at all possible they [college students] should just cross off the Saturday after Thanksgiving every year and come up to Preston."

While many people attend the festival every year, the fact the festival is free leaves those involved with the production to seek funding elsewhere. Free electricity helps the production tremendously however, Joe said. The power is donated by Utah Power and Light and Preston offers the city free power to light its buildings, he said.

In the end, when all the struggles of putting the production together and getting it financed have been solved, the hardest part of the event could be clowns, Joe said.

"You can make a Santa Claus [light design], and if his beard is a little to the left, no one will notice it, but Ronald McDonald had to look like Ronald McDonald," Joe said regarding a light sculpture made for the Preston McDonald's restaurant.

Julie said her husband did a good job with the sculpture and that even the local Ronald McDonald liked his design.

The festival continues through Christmas, with entertainment provided at different venues around Preston.

"Come look at a town that still has Christmas spirit," Joe said. "Come find a town that still loves Christmas like it should be."

By Tyler Riggs; str@cc.usu.edu
Photos by John Zsiray