Festival of Lights joins 34 houses to showcase their homes

If you want to go and enjoy the holidays in a special way, head over to the Clovis Festival of Lights. Also known as Santa Claus Lane, they are a self-proclaimed largest residential animated light show in the world, according to KMPH.

The idea for the event started in 2007 when Terry and Deb Toews wanted to do more for Christmas. They added a few more lights every year, then in 2012 they connected their next-door neighbor’s house lights and displayed their homes together. In 2015 they had a meeting and connected 16 houses with lights and music. 2015 was the year the names Clovis Festival of Lights and Santa Claus Lane were given to the neighborhood.

Amritpaul Singh Gill, a student at Fresno State, talks about the differences between this year’s and last year’s Festival of Lights.

“It has definitely gotten bigger,” Gill said. “Last years was fun but they really have stepped up there game. I really like that more houses have joined in because it makes it a bit longer and a better experience. The lights and music are awesome and I can tell a lot of effort has been put in and can’t wait to see how many more people join next year.”

The Clovis Festival of Lights is located at Ladera Ranch. The festival is open from Nov. 24 through New Year’s Eve from 6-10 pm. every night. You can choose to walk and experience the event or you can drive slowly and watch the light show in the comfort of your vehicle.

Anthony Diaz is a junior at FC and discusses his experience at the Clovis Festival of Lights.

“It’s very peaceful and relaxing,” Diaz said. “My family was greeted with a really nice man telling us to dim our lights and enjoy. We cruised along in our car enjoying the show. Seeing all the lights going off at the same time was amazing and it was quite fun. I would recommend going for other people if they’re thinking about it.”

Santa Claus Lane separates itself from other events using one key factor; music. All 34 houses are synced and play the same Christmas music as the lights light up according to the beat of the songs. When entering the community you can tune in to 98.5 FM, which is the channel that plays the same Christmas music as the houses.

Max Munoz, ’20, describes how he experienced the Festival of Lights.

“It was amazing,” Munoz said. “This man was standing by the entry and told us to tune into a radio station which was synced to the houses. We drove around and the lights were reacting to the music which was really neat. It wasn’t really long which sucked, I wished it was a little longer, but besides that, it was totally worth going to see.”

If you would like to donate money to the event visit their website for more information. Whatever is donated benefits the Faith Community Church of Nazarene’s food pantry. They hand out non-perishable food once per month serving approximately 300 people. Head over to the Clovis Festival of Lights to get into the holiday spirit.

This author can be reached via Twitter @Harjot01Singh and via email: Harjot Singh.