Northern Lights Christmas music and lights show shines bright in Walnut
Dec. 21—WALNUT — Inspired by a childhood tradition, Walnut resident Jason Aycock transforms his front yard into a winter wonderland each Christmas season.
The Northern Lights Christmas music and lights display comprises more than 70,000 individual lights, with 10,000 additional lights added just this year.
Since starting the show in 2011, he has kept it going on and off over the last 12 years with his wife, Erin Aycock, and the help of other family members and friends.
Origins of the tradition
Growing up in the Blackland community of Prentiss County, Aycock helped his father, Anthony Aycock, put up Christmas lights each Black Friday.
They would decorate while other family members were out shopping and turn the lights on when everyone got home.
"Dad got it all started," Aycock, 37, said.
One thing they'd always include was a Christmas tree on a power pole in their yard, positioned so that an elderly neighbor across the road could see it through her window.
Aycock includes a power pole tree in his own yard now. It's the first decoration he turns on each night and the last one he turns off.
The name "Northern Lights" was suggested by a friend because it's located on the north end of town, just outside the Walnut city limits.
The first year consisted of basic lights, a handful of inflatables and a few small trees programmed using a controller Aycock built himself. He has a degree in computer engineering and works as a senior developer for Air Tractor, a company in Olney, Texas, that builds airplanes.
He's continued to add to the show each year and now uses a software called Light-O-Rama to program the show.
The 2023 show features eight new 8-foot trees, each with 1,200 lights, and a fresh batch of songs, along with two fan favorites from previous years.
With 11 songs and one intermission, the show lasts 35 minutes and is played on a loop during open hours. Visitors stay in their cars and tune their radio stations to 87.9 to hear the music that accompanies the flashing lights.
As much as the show is geared toward the public, Aycock also does it for his children — a 7-year-old daughter, Allie, and a 1-year-old son, Bearett.
The tracklist doesn't include just Christmas tunes. It also features country songs, Metallica and a few Disney songs.
"My daughter's favorite Disney movies are 'Frozen,' 'Moana' and 'Encanto,'" Aycock said, so songs from all three are in the show.
He's never kept a count of the number of visitors each year, but estimates thousands visit through the holiday season, with an average of 100 per night.
"There are some people that actually come by every night," Aycock said. "Their kids won't let them go home a different way. They have to go this way."
Setting up and sharing the show
Aycock begins setting up the lights on Nov. 1 and continues working late into the month, typically working on the display from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. on weeknights and all day on weekends.
Programming lights to coordinate them with new songs begins as early as August though, and he spends roughly four hours per night for roughly three weeks programming a single song.
Aycock still starts the show on Black Friday — and never before then — citing his great-grandmother who insisted Christmas lights shouldn't be turned on until after Thanksgiving.
"You've got to be thankful before you're greedy," she'd say.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Northern Lights was a place to get away, Aycock said. Now, it has become an annual tradition for families in Walnut and beyond. Visitors regularly travel from as far away as Memphis and Tupelo.
"It's just a time for folks not to have to worry about what's going on in the world," Aycock said of the show. "It's time to go be a kid for a minute."
The tradition is one he hopes to pass down to his own children, just as his dad did with him.
The Northern Lights show runs from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. On Christmas Eve, the show runs on a loop the entire night.
It will continue through at least Dec. 31, with disassembly beginning sometime the following week.
To follow along with the latest updates from Northern Lights, check out the "Northern Lights Walnut, MS" Facebook page.
