No I am not referring to the “kooky” television family that seems to do things off the wall. I am thinking about Jennings Osborne who hails from Little Rock, AR. You might remember, he is the one who back in 1985 set up an elaborate Christmas decoration at his home. Every year, he added more lights, until it became so big; it got world wide press coverage when his neighbors took him to the Arkansas Supreme Court saying the attraction was a public nuisance.
It all started some 20 years ago, Jennings was so overwhelmed with the season of the year, and he did this for his daughter. Initially they had only about 1,000 lights, but over the years the exhibit grew and grew. The family even bought two adjacent houses to carry on the exhibit and expand the theme. Today, there are well over three million lights.
In 1995, after losing the Supreme Court case, the Osborne’s wanted to share their collection with the world. They sold the entire exhibit to Disney World to house and to show the collection two months each year.
The actual undertaking of setting up the exhibit goes into production in late July when the entire collection is pulled together. There are 10 miles of lights not to mention over 125 angels and 44 snow machines.
You can see this holiday extravaganza from November 8-January 3 this year at Hollywood Studios with your daily admission to the theme park.
