photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

Holiday lights strung along trees illuminate Massachusetts Street in downtown Lawrence. Though they shine only during the winter months around the holidays, city crews say it is a year-round effort to ensure the lights can dazzle during the winter.

Each year in Lawrence, alongside the long-running “Santa Rescue” event on the day after Thanksgiving, the city marks the official start to the holidays as the mayor flips a switch to turn on holiday lights winding around the trees of downtown Massachusetts Street.

Mark Hecker, an assistant director with the city’s Parks, Recreation and Culture department, said it is always a fun moment to hear the “oohs and aahs” of the crowd as he is standing in the middle of downtown Lawrence helping coordinate the lighting, but it is not really just as simple as a flip of the switch.

For the city to light up Mass. Street and some of its parks, it takes miles of lights, thousands of bulbs and many man-hours to bring the Christmas spirit. Hecker said the holiday lights are probably one of the most popular things the parks department does throughout the year, helping spread cheer and create a fun atmosphere in downtown Lawrence.

Here is a peak behind the curtain of how the city’s holiday lights have evolved over the years and what it takes to deliver the holiday shine.

photo by: Shawn Valverde/Special to the Journal-World

A crowd cheers as the lights are lit in downtown Lawrence on Massachusetts Street on Friday, November 28, 2025.

For many years, downtown lights were treated more or less like a household that hangs their own Christmas lights.

Hecker said Downtown Lawrence Inc. organized the storing and caring of the lights, with the city — especially the parks department — helping them string them on the trees along Mass. Street. He thinks the lights were stored in the attic of Weaver’s and brought out a little bit before the holiday rush to begin the process.

During that time, they used incandescent bulbs that were made of glass, making them fragile and with less glow, Hecker said. The lights were probably hung from “every other tree,” partly because the downtown electricity was slightly limited, according to Hecker. About 10 years ago, the electric system got upgraded and the city could put outlets near every tree which gave the city more capacity, but the “secret sauce” was switching to LED lights, Hecker said.

“We can do a lot more lights with the same amount of electricity,” Hecker said. “That changed the game quite a bit.”

While the focus is mostly along downtown, Hecker said the department has used lights at other parks across the city including Centennial Park and helps hang up lights at North Lawrence’s Union Pacific Depot, 402 N. Second St. and at the corner of 23rd and Massachusetts streets.

Unlike a household’s holiday lights, the city is paying attention to the process year-round — not stowing them in an attic.

Levi Parkin, the city’s forestry supervisor, said the process of planning out the holiday lighting starts pretty much as soon as they take the previous season’s lights down. Across the city, Parkin said most of the lights are taken down around New Years Day, but in downtown Lawrence, the lights are left up until Valentine’s Day at the request of local businesses.

Parkin said once the lights are taken down, they gather the strands together and see which lights may be burnt out and in need of replacement. The lights are then organized and stowed away, with the forestry team spending a week organizing them to make sure they are ready to come out for the next year.

Hecker said identifying the amount of bulbs or new lights the city needs is important, since the city needs to start ordering replacement pieces in June or July.

“We’re looking that far ahead,” Hecker said.

photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

Lights strung along trees in Robinson Park near downtown Lawrence. The city’s forestry department plays a big role in hanging up the holiday lights in Lawrence, with crews spending around 1,500 man-hours working to prepare the holiday lights.

Starting around August or September, Parkin said the forestry department pulls out the lights and begins testing them one by one. They plug in the miles of strands — Parkin said lighting downtown Lawrence requires 12 miles of lights — going “foot by foot” to see how the lights look and replacing bulbs or fixing broken sockets.

While the lights the city buys generally last between 5-10 years, the plastic can fade over time, which can lead to the light looking discolored or distorted, Parkin said.

“After a few seasons they can look kind of crummy,” Parkin said.

Hecker said the department every year has about $10,000 to $15,000 set aside to replace or add new lights. Because there is a limited number of trees downtown, the department normally will only just order replacements, sometimes 10,000 bulbs at a time or new strings as they are looking for “quality over quantity,” according to Hecker.

Parkin said when the department looks to see which lights need to be replaced, it can sometimes seem overwhelming. When you are comparing a new bulb to a years old bulb individually, Parkin said you can see comparatively “that [old one] looks terrible.” But if you are looking down Mass Street, you can be looking at around 64,500 individual bulbs in your view — a whole constellation compared to a few lights side by side. The team then has to think of the big picture when comparing which bulbs are too far gone, with the goal of replacing around “10-15%” per year, Parkin said. Otherwise, the costs would become “astronomical.”

Now that the lights have been tested, the work can begin to string up the miles of lights.

The process of putting the lights up downtown normally takes about a week, Parkin said, but that is because the parks department brings in a big crew to help out. He said it takes about 20 different people to string the lights up that quickly, and Hecker said that includes pulling crews to assist the forestry department like golf course teams and other park maintenance teams.

Parkin said although the biggest stretch of working on the holiday lighting process is between October and November, throughout the year it takes about 1,500 man-hours going through stringing the lights up and taking them down. From using the forestry department’s bucket trucks to string the lights in the taller trees to having crews help with stretching the cords and making sure they get in the outlet, the process has many moving parts.

“There’s a lot that goes into it and a lot of things we worry about,” Parkin said.

But just because there is a lot of work doesn’t mean the forestry team is strictly business. Hecker said there are different lighting schemes every year, and he doesn’t know what things will look like until the lights come on.

“Once they get into it, they are very creative,” Hecker said.

photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

A giant tree lit up with Christmas lights in Lawrence’s South Park. Although city crews always light up the downtown trees, designs in other areas are different each year.

The department will also move things around or add new features. Hecker said they moved lights shaped like an igloo and snowman away from all the lights in South Park to feature them closer to smaller parks downtown which creates a “completely different look.” Also, last year the team debuted a light tunnel in South Park that was an immediate hit with holiday goers as a new photo opportunity, as the Journal-World reported.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Melissa Corbin and her dog, Bentley, pose for a photo Tuesday evening, Dec. 17, 2024, in the light tunnel at South Park.

While part of Parkin’s job is to focus on the lights, he noted that it is easy not to think about the difference of what downtown looks like in the cold and dark of winter without the lights. But when he begins to take down the lights on Mass Street in February, it can be like the “saddest day” as the glow is taken down.

Fortunately, just as the seasons change and spring brings in more natural light from longer days, Lawrence residents know once the fall chill and earlier nights return that downtown will glow again with the holiday lights. It’s a tradition that helps bring people together and celebrates “the miracle of the holidays” as Parkin said.

“It’s almost taken for granted that they are up every year, but it takes year-round thinking to make it happen again,” Hecker said.

photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

Christmas lights shining outside the Granada Theater, 1020 Massachusetts St., in downtown Lawrence. When city crews hang up the lights, it takes nearly 12 miles of cord to light the trees just along Mass Street.