‘It grows a little bit each year:’ North Carolina family raises donations for organization through their Christmas light display
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GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — With only three days to go until Christmas, it’s a race to finish setting up the lights for some families.
The Oliver family in Greensboro, North Carolina has a few more lights to add to their already impressive display on Shady Lawn Drive.
“I think I’ve been here six years and we’ve been doing it five years so far. It grows a little bit every year; next year will be a little bit more extreme and so on and so on,” said Gene Oliver, the homeowner.
It’s taken about 70 hours so far to put up their display, but Gene couldn’t do it without the help of his 5-year-old son and light supervisor Eli.
“I watched Daddy put the snowflake up, and I did those things around the snowflake… on top of them. I did the bushes over there near the mailbox… the blinking ones,” said Eli.
Eli has put in several hours helping the family recreate their display from past years and add to it. His favorites are the green, blue, and red, “trees” in the yard.
“I like how they go around the trees at the bottom, and I like the red because it’s so reddish!” said Eli.
The Olivers hope many come to visit their display and have set up a canned food donation site, they forward to the Out of the Garden Project. Last year, the family started collecting just before Christmas and by the end of the year, they donated roughly 60 pounds of canned food.
“The joy people get out of it is basically my main reason for doing it and then we started doing the canned food donation. So, if people come by and like the lights, and they wanna donate some food, this year has been awful crazy, you know, money is tight and everything, there’s more of a demand for food these days and everything helps.”
Gene oliver
