Local homes to join in glittering display for annual holiday lights tour

Dec. 6—Monadnock Region residents and visitors seeking winter delight have an organized opportunity again this season to view holiday lights in Keene and across a number of towns in Cheshire and Hillsborough counties.

Local parks and recreation departments have collaborated for the third annual Southwest N.H. Tour of Lights this month, officially starting this coming Saturday and running until Dec. 26. Twelve communities offered their residents the chance to participate, including Keene, Swanzey, Fitzwilliam, Jaffrey, Rindge, Greenfield and Peterborough.

The tour's return continues a tradition that began with getting people active earlier in the pandemic, according to Andy Bohannon, Keene's parks, recreation and facilities director.

"It was a good thing for people to get out of the house and go see [holiday lights], and we know everybody does it anyway, so why not give them the assistance to go find different houses in different communities?" Bohannon said.

All registrants have been entered into community drawings with prizes coming from local businesses, according to a promotion released by the Antrim Parks and Recreation Department.

Keene Parks and Recreation will host a kickoff for its portion of the Tour of Lights, known as the Light Up the City Tour, on Saturday starting at 5 p.m. Visitors to the department's office at 312 Washington St. can help themselves to hot cocoa and popcorn before embarking on their tour, Bohannon said.

Brianne Rafford-Varley, the Keene department's recreation manager, said the Elm City's portion involves people voting on the best decorated home in addition to the prize giveaway.

"Everyone that was entered goes into a raffle for a gift card, and then we recognize the top three," she said.

She said the department will post an official tour route map to its website and social media pages Saturday, with the event officially ending in Keene on Dec. 23.

City resident Jon Lake, 40, was one of the top three winners of last year's tour, but said for his family it's about the spirit of Christmas cheer more than the spirit of competition. He said he first entered last year after his wife learned of the tour once he'd already started decorating their home.

"I was like, 'Well, I guess I need more lights,' " Lake said Monday night. "The contest is fun, but the point was just doing the lights for fun."

Lake's home on Old Walpole Road boasts a 40-foot-tall cedar tree stylized as an oversized Christmas tree that he said took four hours to decorate. He said it features a large white illuminated star the family crafted from coat hangers.

"I rented a lift from Home Depot [to decorate], but the lights and star stayed on there from last year," he said.

This year's decorating took Lake and his six sons roughly 20 hours to complete and is made up of about 10,000 lights, he estimated. He said he added about 2,000 feet of lights onto what the home had last year.

Next year, Lake said he wants to keep scaling up and adding more, particularly decorations where tour-goers will be able to tune into a local radio station and watch the lights synchronize to music.

"I'm going to be just adding different props in the air to go with music, so more trees and snowflakes I'm going to build over the summertime," Lake said. "I had plans for this year to build a 20-foot mountain and a bunch of trees in the yard."

Bohannon said about 30 houses in Keene registered for the tour last year, and to his knowledge "well over 100" across the region. This year, 26 Keene homes have signed up to be part of the celebration, according to Rafford-Varley.

"It's nice to go see not just Keene but Swanzey and some of the other towns that are close by," Bohannon said. "When I [drove the tour], I saw parts of Swanzey that I had never seen before."

Trisha Nail can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or tnail@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter at

@byTrishaNail.