Christ lights up street in Goessel with lavish display
Staff writer
Some people enjoy traveling to other cities to take in Christmas light displays, but Goessel, Kansas, population 539, on the northwest edge of Marion County, is not usually such a point of destination. Lyle Christ is working to change that.
At his home at 100 S. Pine in Goessel, Christ put up over 16,000 lights for the two months of the Christmas season, creating a colorful, glittering, moving, glowing, and blinking display at the edge of the dead-end street.
“I like to rearrange it and add a little something new every year,” Christ said. “The neighbors don’t seem to mind too much when people drive in to look. They have to turn around at the end of the block on Fred Schmidt’s drive, but he has told me that’s OK.”
Christ said he goes to all the trouble of putting up lights for his grandchildren’s enjoyment. He admits he enjoys it all a little too.
“The hardest part is getting it all up,” he said. “It takes me a good four, 8-hour days to get everything in place.”
Christ is employed full-time in maintenance at Bethesda Home so his light display work must be done before and after work hours.
“I am out here at 4 a.m. checking bulbs and getting things ready for days,” he said. “Then when it’s light I can string it all out in place.”
His display includes the typical angels, candy canes, and snowmen. However, Santa on a sleigh pulled by several reindeer with moving legs is a special attraction, as is a more than 20-foot glittering Christmas tree laid out in lights on the front lawn.
“The best way to see all this would be from the air,” Christ said. “I’ve never been able to do that, but I am sure it would be cool.”
Christ said he and his wife Linda did not mind the extra $40 per month payment on their electricity bill for the two months his yard is lit up.
“It’s just something I enjoy doing,” he said.
He invites others to drive by and enjoy his creation, but hopes they keep in mind it is just a quiet, small-town, dead-end street with no added attractions other than his extensive Christmas light display.