As mentioned previously, we are taking at least a year off as we are expecting a new baby (which we recently learned is probably a girl). You can read all about that if you missed it (and here in the Sun Journal as well). We’re excited about our new life changes, but we will miss working on the display. We will post here and on facebook when we are ready to start doing it again.

Thanks to all for your support!

Howdy Folks,

First of all, we hope you’re having an awesome Christmas! We certainly are! The layer of snow we received just before Christmas Day was perfect! What a blessing! Hopefully we’ll get some more soon.

Another blessing in which we’ve been happy to take part is the donations for the Wilton Food Pantry. So far you’ve all donated $597.75 as of December 27th, which is enough to purchase approximately 3736 pounds of food for those in need.

We wanted to give everyone a heads up about some news for next year. As some of you are already aware, we are expecting our first child this spring (no news on the gender yet, but we’re pretty sure it’s human). We’re both very excited and anxious to take on our new role as parents! As with any big life change, however, we’ve needed to do some shuffling of priorities. Along with the added financial expenses which a child brings, we’ve also found that our house simply isn’t set up for both a baby and running a business (Phil works from a home office). To remedy this we’re building a new garage with added office space this spring, thus freeing up a bedroom for the little one.

So as you can see, we have a lot of things changing at the Hilton house. Because of this, we have chosen to take at least one year off from the Halloween and Christmas light displays. After we have a year of parenting under our belt and some time to get comfortable with our new expenses we will re-evaluate and decide if we’re ready to take it on again. For the moment, however, we feel it is the right time to take a break.

We’ve already begun to feel the effects of this decision. It was very strange to see all of the after Christmas sales and realize that we don’t need to “stock up” on lights for next year. At the same time, however, we are looking forward to having more space to store display items in our new garage, and to sit in our living room and not hear the dull roar of revving car engines and radios turned up too loud. We’re sure that our neighbors will appreciate the break as well (the crowds have been significantly more rowdy this year, which concerns us).

So consider this our holiday lighting sabbatical. We look forward to returning refreshed with new ideas, new energy, and – eventually – a little helper ready to take on the family tradition.

But enough of the negativity… It’s still Christmas until January 6th (the 12th day), after all! As a reminder, if donations for the Wilton Food Pantry (either online or in the donations box on the display sign) reach $1000 by the 6th then we will run the lights for an extra night!

Lastly, don’t be surprised if you hear some more non-Christmas music in the display after January 1st. We like to mix things up in the new year!

As always, thank you for your support, and Merry Christmas!

Peace & Blessings,
Kim & Phil

Feel free to discuss this on Facebook!

This is the time of year when all the Christmas lights go on sale and we stock up for next year. Unfortunately, no one seems to have any lights left over to mark down this season. So we’re looking for a little help. Read on for details..

We are in need of Walmart’s “Holiday Time” brand 100 count clear mini lights on green wire. We use these throughout the display consistently so that maintenance is not so frustrating. Mixing in other brands, types, or strings with more or fewer bulbs complicates things quite a bit. So if you see these in your travels at least 50% off, and you want to help out, please pick them up, keep the receipt, and we will buy them from you at cost. We need around 30 boxes for next year.  That’s a full case and then 5 boxes more (if you can get the case then please do as it makes them easier to transport and store). Please note that we do NOT want LEDs.

Please do keep your reciepts. We only need 30 boxes and if someone beats you to it you’ll probably want to return them.

After you’ve found some, just use our contact form and we’ll be in touch very soon about getting them from you and paying  you back.

Thank you for your help, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Peace,

Kim & Phil Hilton

For reference, this is what last year’s boxes looked like. This year’s box is very similar.