DENISON, TX -- Thanksgiving is barely over and already Texomans are turning their thoughts to Christmas.

Whether it's braving the crowds to shop or just enjoying holiday décor!

Heather Sahr got to see one of the area's best holiday light displays and shares the sights and sounds.

They call the day after Thanksgiving “Black Friday,” but that wasn't the case for those who took a trip through the holiday light display at Loy Lake Park Friday night to enjoy the beautiful bright colors of the holiday season.

The sun went down and the lights came on for the ninth annual holiday lights display in Denison.

Crowds gathered just before dark to hop aboard the horse drawn wagon that took people through the trail.

It’s not an easy job to set everything up.

"The people from our maintenance department at the county set these lights up and we have some part time help, we had the boy scouts come out, putting light bulbs in for us. We have a lot of volunteers. Probably over a hundred people who volunteer and work that front gate,” said Grayson County Commissioner David Whitlock.

This year, more than 63 units will be on display and it's never the same as the year before.

"We try and change it up a little bit every year. We may change locations, we may change light fixtures themselves. Yes we do, we try to change them out so we have something different to look at every year," Whitlock said.

County officials say it costs between $35,000$-40,000 to run the lights every year, funded completely by donations from the public.

County Purchasing Agent, Jeff Schneider, said, "We take money from donations and we trade out displays every year, so all the money that's collected from it, goes right back into holiday lights. It's completely self supporting"

More than 350,000 watts of light adorn the pathway through the park. And more than 12,000 individual replacement bulbs were purchased this year.

So how does a light display this massive get it's juice?

"When we first started, we ran on generators,” Schneider said.
“And with the hurricanes down south that year, we weren't even sure we were going to be able to put on holiday lights because there was a shortage of generators. So we decided we'd put in permanent power, and we have our own permanent electric supply now."

New displays this year include a fishing rudolph, a new archway, and a couple bears climbing a tree.

The display is free and open to the public. You can see the lights between 5:30 and 10:00 p.m. until December 27th.