Over the years, the Richmond, Virginia, area has developed a quirky habit of celebrating the holidays with what locals call “tacky light” displays in their yards and on their houses. One neighborhood in particular stands out for its devotion to this tradition.
As the holiday season approaches, the energy level in Walton Park in Midlothian seems to skyrocket, as residents rally to outdo one another for the best yard decorations and light displays. The effort builds to a climactic point on a Saturday in early December, when the CarMax Tacky Light Run, a 6-kilometer event, brings hordes of visitors into the neighborhood. Each year, a theme is chosen to provide homeowners with a bit of direction as they decorate. This year, it’s the "Nutcracker," and in 2024, it was the "12 Days of Christmas."
How did Walton Park get so serious about its holiday lights? It’s been that way as long as many residents can remember, said Ryan Burke, Walton Park Community Association president. He estimated that 150 to 200 properties participate. One street in particular, Dawnridge Court, has long been the epicenter, with every house on the street lit up.
“The only rule is to be as tacky as possible,” Burke told Homes.com. “Each home is truly expressing each family’s individual flavor of lights!”
On its website, the association honors a few homeowners who go above and beyond in decorating their homes, including those with the tackiest, most traditional, and most likely to blow a fuse designs. Tara Krohn’s house on Queensgate Road was named the overall tackiest last year.
Owners have personal takes on 'tacky'
“I grew up with a very traditional Colonial-style home that had the beautiful wreaths and the bows and white lights in the windows,” Krohn said. “I think tacky is a 180 from that. It screams all things Christmas tchotchke and embraces more the characters and bright colors, kind of the storytelling of the holiday.”
Krohn and her husband, Doug, moved to the neighborhood in 2004 and raised two children there. She remembers when her son was small enough to drag an electrical cord through a culvert under the driveway; now he’s 16 and helps decorate the roof.
The family has a lot of lit-up Disney characters in their front yard, as well as references to their beloved James Madison University bulldog mascot. But Krohn said the element of their display that’s most special is a wooden cutout of a Santa hoisting a bag and climbing through a window. Her father and brother made it with her grandfather in the early 1960s, she said, and every year the family puts it on top of the house.
Around the corner from the Krohns, Kate Ray has been working hard for many weeks on her display. Every year she creates it anew, cutting up plywood to create characters from movies like Elsa from "Frozen" and Hank and Dory from "Finding Dory." Last year, her take on the annual theme was “12 Days of Swiftmas,” complete with a stage where her daughter, a big fan of Taylor Swift, and visitors could dance to her music. This time, she’s built two nutcrackers that tower 7-plus feet over either side of her driveway.
“The [6k run] started coming down our street in 2015, and that’s when I started to go big,” Ray said. “I’ve got Christmas stuff under my deck, in my house, everywhere.”
Virginia Goin’s own tacky contribution is a wooden selfie stop that Ray made for Goin’s house on Ashtree Road. It has holes for people’s faces, and Goin decorates it with a variety of Christmas tree ornaments. But the most prominent part of her display is the large holly tree with the star on top. A couple of years ago, Goin fell into the tree while she was putting up the star. She wasn’t badly hurt, but this year, a few neighborhood teenagers agreed to raise the star for her.
No pressure to decorate
Goin sent her neighbors an email recently encouraging them not to worry if they didn’t feel like decorating this year. And she said that if they needed help making their houses look good, she could find someone to assist.
“A lot of people need to hear that. I’m sitting here getting anxious because my house is not where I want it to be, and my neighbor said, ‘Nobody’s judging,’” Goin said. “We do this because we love it, not because we have to. If somebody’s having a bad year or an off time, don’t stress about it; your neighbor across the street doesn’t care.”
When Sports Backers, a Richmond-based nonprofit that organizes marathons and other athletic events, sought a location in 2013 to host its annual holiday run and walk, Walton Park stood out. While the course generally follows a loop along some of the neighborhood’s through streets, it makes a side trip so runners can experience the bright lights on Dawnridge Court, a cul-de-sac.
“It’s one of our biggest walking events, which is great because it makes it more accessible to more people,” said Nan Callahan, a Sports Backers spokesperson. “It’s also very family-friendly, one of our only events where we allow strollers.”
What really drives residents in Walton Park each holiday season isn’t so much the competition for the tackiest display. It’s more the contagiousness of being part of something bigger than themselves and spreading the holiday spirit.
“I work in psychiatry, and so I listen to a lot of people who have a hard time in life,” said Ray. “If I can bring a little bit of joy to somebody just driving past my yard, I’m in.”