GEORGETOWN, Texas — As a kid, Christmas did not hold as much meaning for Georgetown father Chris Hartgraves.
"I grew up in apartments, so [I] never had any memories of decorating the house with my dad or anything like that," Hartgraves said. "I didn't want my girls to grow up without memories of decorating the house and doing things cool for Christmas. But, also a little bit selfishly, you know, I want to make my own memories too."
So Hartgraves decided to put together light shows he would run each weekend through the month of December, starting at 6:15 p.m. and ending at 9:00 p.m. There were four shows a night that would run for about 12-15 minutes each.
"I've worked on this show the entire year, realistically I spent probably about 500 hours in my garage building these props that you see on the house you know and then I even took an entire week off work just to physically set up the lights on my house and in my yard and stuff like that. So it's a lot of work," Hartgraves said.
The lights have gained a lot of attention, attracting anywhere from a few hundred visitors to more than a thousand in a single weekend.
Hartgraves' display has also gotten attention due to the spotlights on top of his home, which can be seen from up to 10 miles away.
"Because of my lights, there were some conspiracy theories on Facebook groups about aliens and Starlink and nobody knew what the lights were," Hartgraves said. "There was a concerned citizen that thought that my lights were being intentionally aimed at an aircraft and so they called the police on me. But it was alright, the sheriffs came out, they very quickly could see I wasn't intentionally aiming it at aircraft and they ended up enjoying the show afterwards."
It is entertainment for a father who is lighting the way for his kids to be inspired by Christmas.
"I have to pass on a legacy to my kids," Hartgraves said. "Hopefully they have some really good memories of their childhood setting up and they can pass it along."
Hartgraves said he will continue to add new songs and props to his shows to make them fresh each year.