Rhema Bible Church To Kick Off Holiday Season With Annual Christmas Lights

The annual Rhema Bible Church Christmas lights are back for another holiday season.

The 160-acre property is decorated with 2 million LED lights that will all come on Wednesday night.

Skylar Hagin oversees the setup.

"I have always grown up watching and looking at the displays here at Rhema, but I never thought I would be in charge of it," he said. "Now, seeing the background of all the things that go into it, all of the hard work, it makes me actually grateful for all of the people that have done it in the past."

The work begins about 3 months out from lights on with a crew of about 15 to 20 employees.

"We have two pickers that go up into the tops of trees, we have a ground crew wrapping trees, wrapping buildings, and then we have a cord crew coming behind them and plugging everything in," said Hagin.

He adds even the displays themselves are custom-made. 

"We do have over 600 wire-frame figurines throughout our campus. We have different scenes like Noah's Ark and animals, Nativity, and gingerbread scenes," Hagin continued saying, "So, unlike other displays that would buy those things, we actually make them in-house and put them up ourselves."

This tradition has been around since 1982 and has now become a part of many area families' own holiday traditions.

"We have people come out after Thanksgiving, they eat their dinner, and all come out here together," he added. "We have many people that tell us they are so thankful that they have an area that they can go to as a family and with friends."

Rhema's Christmas lights are free to enter and have both walk-through and drive-through elements. Horse and buggy rides are also available for a fee.

Hagin said there are several concession stands throughout that offer items like hot chocolate, popcorn, funnel cakes, and mini donuts.

Parking on the property is free with 2,000 spaces open to the public. Hagin suggests visiting https://www.rhemalights.org/ for a map of available parking or more information about the lights.