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Christmas Light Display in Kennesaw A Gift to Community

The Short family goes all out for their Christmas light display.

Drive by Lewis Elementary off of Jim Owens Road in Kennesaw and look across the street, and if it’s at night, you can’t help but slow down as you pass by the home of the Short family: Gene and Susan, and their son Autry.  The trim brick home is transformed during the holidays with either 40,000 lights (Gene’s estimate) or 70,000 lights (Autry’s estimate). Autry, a senior at Allatoona High School, explains, “I don’t think Dad understands how much money he spends every year on new lights. He goes to Home Depot every other day and gets eight boxes of 400 lights each.

Regardless of how many lights are actually in the display, it’s an absolute delight to stop for a few minutes and gaze in wonder at the magic of the holiday light display.

Susan explains that it was originally done for the children of Lewis Elementary School; Susan works in the lunchroom and as a crossing guard for the school. She says, “It started out when we moved here, but Gene has always been a giving person. He does it mainly for the kids, especially since we are so close to the school.  At first, we did just a little bit of decorating but then, we started decorating for every holiday.”

Autry, Susan, and Gene Short, along with Simon the cat.

For example, a Halloween display featured a pumpkin family dressed up in Autry and Gene’s old clothes. Susan laughs and says, “The little [pumpkin] boy grew up as Autry did, since he wore Autry’s old clothes.” Gene found himself starting to decorate for Christmas when it was still Halloween.  The Halloween display stopped altogether the year some mischief-makers chunked the pumpkin family into the road.

It was then that Gene decided to decorate only for Christmas. Autry says it’s his fault that the display grew so large.  He says, “We got the first blow-up decoration because I told him that we should look at these.” Susan chimes in, “And then Gene got carried away with them.” So the rush to add blow-ups to the display began.

But Autry didn’t always get what he wanted. He says, “I wanted a hairy dog, but Dad said ‘that thing won’t last,’ so we never got a hairy dog. People think that blowups can stand there for days, but they are not always stable and they fall over easily. The old ones that we used to have were 10-12 feet tall; the Nutcracker is the only one left of the original ones, and he can’t hold his head up. This year, while no one sensible was here, Dad tied a rope around his neck, so when he’s not blown up, he looks like he is hanging. He just couldn’t stand to get rid of him.”

All of the Shorts have a sense of humor. One year, Autry asked for the video game Rock Band for Christmas. So, Gene gave him a rock band blow-up instead, complete with Santa playing guitar. Autry says it was not funny until he was given the real video game. Autry says, “After the rock band blow-up went up, I told Dad that the other side looked plain, so we added more and more. Then, I suggested that we add lights down the tree trunks; I have way too many ideas.”

Gene does most of the work. About 2-1/2 to 3 months ahead of time, he begins going through all of the lights and tests them. It doesn’t always go as planned. Autry explains, “We test the lights first, and then end up going to Home Depot to buy more lights to get the old lights working, so we end up with even more lights than what we started with.”

If you’ve ever untangled lights for your family Christmas tree, imagine what it must be like for the Short family. Susan explains that the lights are simply put away each year in boxes, usually without labels. She says, “Every year, when we open the storage boxes, it’s like Christmas. You open it up and go, ‘Whooo, what’s in here?’”

Autry asked for the video game "Rock Band" and received this blow-up as a joke.

Autry says, “We have backup pieces, too. For example, We have three top pieces and two bottom pieces of Santa, and we probably have enough reindeer to do another row of reindeer.” It’s no wonder they have replacement pieces: in previous years, Jesus has been stolen out of the manger and reindeer were also taken. But the thefts and mischief don’t stop the Shorts from continuing to give a little Christmas joy to the children (and adults) in the area.

Autry explains, “Dad is one of those people who thinks about something that no one else would do and then just does it.” Susan adds, “Gene is very generous. If we’re in a store and he sees someone who is less fortunate, he may give him something. He likes helping the less fortunate, especially people with kids.”
Susan does her share for the children, too, although she claims not to work much on it. She makes sure that lights are turned on early in the morning so that the children heading to school can see the light display before the day begins. That involves six switches at the main panel, different switches outside, switches all over the house, and finally, at the street, turning on the rock band. It’s definitely a lot of work, but they don’t seem to mind.

The Shorts are the kind of people who will feed a stray cat…for ten years. They own a 22-lb Siamese cat named Simon; he doesn’t seem to mind the attention given to the stray cat, probably because he’s too busy helping decorate for Christmas.

Susan says, “Simon follows Gene around and will climb the ladder to get on the roof with him. Then, when he’s trying to put the lights up, he swats at the lights. We can’t get him to leave Gene alone!”

But it’s all worth it in the end. Susan says, “Cobb EMC is not complaining, but it’s worth it. We’re blessed to be able to afford it, and people really enjoy [the display]. We had one year that someone put a letter in our mailbox. It looked like they got a piece of paper out of their car and thanked us for the lights. The letter explained that they had been going through a hard time and how much the display had helped them. It gave them hope, and that was very touching to us. This was even before the economy got bad.”

The Shorts don’t have a problem with directing people to their house. Autry says, The whole time I was growing up, if I had to give someone directions, I just said, ‘the house with all of the Christmas lights,’ and there was no need for directions.”

People in the neighborhood have come to expect the display. Autry says, “One year, a whole family came by to see them and complained that we didn’t have them on. Well, it was raining, but people come to expect it.”

Autry says that this year, his father wanted to make improvements since the family took a display break during Christmas 2010. He says, “Dad’s made it bigger and better this year, especially since we didn’t do it last year.” For example, he created two 6” platforms so that the displays could be seen over the fence.

But be sure and visit the display by Christmas Day. Once the magical day arrives, Gene’s ready to take it down. Autry says, “Dad can take it down in 3-5 days. He’ll say, ‘There’s no point in having this up anymore.’”

And then it’s on to planning for the next year. [Ed. note: The Short family does not turn the lights on if it’s raining.]