At 607 Rabbit Creek Road, people can drive by between the hours of 5:30 and 9:30 p.m. through December to see the area’s best Christmas light shows. And this year’s display could be one of the last ones.
Fred Haller, 94, has cultivated the light show every year at his home since 1988 when he first moved to Franklin from Miami. He started with 6,000 lights and now has over 100,000. Haller said he quit counting at 100,000.
“I just like Christmas, and I just like doing lights and things,” Haller said.
Putting up the roughly 100,000 lights takes the better part of November, with Haller’s seven children coming to help more and more.
“They realized how much work it was when I got sick and couldn’t do it, so now they all help,” Haller said. “The kids don’t let me get up on the roof or anything like that anymore. I have to depend on them to do that.”
As drivers along Rabbit Creek Road slow down to take in the array of displays, they may notice Haller’s decorations are one of a kind.
“I don’t put anything out that I don’t make. I don’t go and buy all these blow-ups and things at stores,” Haller said. “I’ve built the Ferris wheel, the merry-go-round, the swing; everything that I put out, I built.
“I lost my wife a couple of years ago. She used to do all the painting on them. I’d do the cutouts and she’d paint them, but now my one daughter will do it if she’s here.”
The lights are now LED, which Haller says doesn’t run up the power bill as much as the old incandescent bulbs used to.
“I used to have problems at first with blowing fuses and that,” Haller said. “But when I changed to LED lights, I haven’t had that problem anymore.”
Haller said doing this for 36 years, he’s gotten to know some of the regular viewers.
“Some people tell me they came here as a child, and they bring their children now,” Haller exclaimed.
As for how long he plans on doing the light show, Haller isn’t sure, saying his kids aren’t keen to keep it up after his passing.
The show runs from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., as per the timer schedule Haller has for the lights so he doesn’t have to go outside in the cold himself to turn the lights on and off. Viewers can pull into the driveway to see all the lights, as some can’t be viewed from the road.