Even though Christmas Day has come and gone, the holiday spirit doesn’t have to be over just yet.
If you’re looking to soak in that holiday cheer for just a little while longer, there is still time to visit the Darst families light show located at 1035 31st St SE in Paris.
For the past eight years, the Darst family has been bringing light and joy to their neighborhood through Christmas lights and music.
“We started small with just four channels to connect to and now it has grown to one hundred and sixty-five channels with approximately 5,000 lights,” said John Darst.
Darst spends a great deal of time and effort producing his light show in order to spread more Christmas cheer during the holidays, with the writing of song sequences sometimes taking up to 20 hours per song.
“The show starts at 5 p.m. and ends at 10 p.m. with the music being broadcast on 89.7 FM,” said Darst.
Speaking of the music, the Darst family chooses non-traditional Christmas music that they personally enjoy and hope others will as well.
“Some of the songs we choose because of our own personal connection with them,” explained Darst. “The Baby Shark by Pinkfong song we added this year because our eighteen-month-old baby absolutely loves that song.”
Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey by Lou Monte is another song the family chose because it’s a song John and his wife, Stephanie enjoy after having heard it fifteen years ago while watching their first Christmas light show together.
Not only does the light show bring joy and happiness to the community but the Darst’s also give back to Lamar County Young Life.
“We were former committee members with Young Life and wanted to continue to support the non-profit organization as members of the community.”
The Darst’s asks that those who have enjoyed their show and want to make a donation give to the Young Life Chapter so that they may continue their outreach to our local teens and young adults.
“None of this would be possible without the support of my wife, Stephanie,” said Darst. “It a lot of work but worth it.”
Other members of the community who put forth the effort to light their community with Christmas cheer is Chad Caller: Caller Family Lights, Brad Ford: Lights for Darlene and Angie Hutchings.
“They have great light shows also so I would encourage everyone to go and enjoy their shows as well.”
