One Man, Many Lights
For the past 12 years, Rustburg resident Steve Frazier has filled his town with Christmas spirit in the form of a light show at his house.
The light show is available to the public to watch each night from Thanksgiving to New Years day.
Frazier sets up over 150,000 lights starting in August, by himself, and syncs up the lights to the beat of a playlist of Christmas songs played on the radio on 101.9 FM. The amazing display also includes a Santa with his reindeer, trees, soldiers and an American flag.
The show coming together is not without hard work though, as according to Frazier, the songs can take anywhere from 20 to 50 hours to sync and edit for the radio.
Thankfully for Frazier, his hard work with the show has not gone unnoticed within his community.
The yearly tradition has been a staple for families in the Rustburg community since 2010, and has become increasingly popular throughout the years.
“On a weekend, you might have 300 cars that are here in a night,” Frazier said. “The second year (of the show) they were backed up all the way to the road.”
2022 will be Frazier’s last hurrah though, as the excrutiating work has started to catch up to him.
“I actually have had both shoulders replaced, and my doctor said ‘don’t you dare do these lights the last two years’ and I said ‘don’t tell me what to do, I’m gonna run my show,” Frazier said. “I was just tired of sitting, but it’s time.”
Frazier was born and raised in Rustburg and has been there to see several key events in his town.
“I was there when the schools first got racially integrated, I was there for black-and-white TV,” Frazier said. “I’ve been there for all of it.”
The show has been a constant tradition for Rustburg families, and has even continued through multiple generations. Frazier recalls a Rustburg woman going to the show with her parents, and then years later coming back to watch it with her husband and kids of her own.
“These people — they come and they watch for so long, they become your family. These people really have become my family,” Frazier said.
For Frazier, even though 2022 will be his last year doing the show, he hopes it will continue down to the next generation.
“I told my daughter once she finishes school she can have the house, make the payments on it, keep it in my name if she wants,” Frazier said. “I told my son the same thing.”
Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, and traditions like this light show perfectly encapsulate what the holiday season is supposed to be all about.
