For fans of elaborate Christmas displays, it’s hard to beat McAdenville, N.C. Every December, residents in the small town west of Charlotte decorate their homes, trees, streetlights and city buildings with hundreds of thousands of Christmas lights.
As the story goes, the local men’s club started the tradition in 1956 — but Harvey Dixon Roberts Jr., who goes by Dick, says it goes back even further.
"I was 18 years old when it started, and I’m 89. So that tells you how long I’ve been around," he told WFAE from his small brick ranch in the neighboring town of Lowell.
Roberts has written a memoir that also chronicles the history of McAdenville — population of about 900 — as a mill town sustained by the yarn manufacturer Pharr Yarns. He said the Christmas lights tradition started in the winter of 1954.
"Four of us employees of Pharr Yarns decided to try to make McAdenville a little more festive," he said. "We asked for permission and was granted to use some of the old parts and we spelled out 'Merry Christmas' up on the hill above where the fire department is. And we made some stars and put them on the mill tower, and we decorated one tree in front of the main mill office. All that was with clear lights."
The company’s founder and president, William Pharr, seemed to like the display.
"Right after Christmas, when we was taking the lights off the tree, Mr. Pharr came out of the office and said, 'Fellas, that looked pretty good. How about next year, adding to it some of the trees up Main Street?' Roberts recalled.
So the next year, 1955, Roberts and his coworkers decorated nine trees along Main Street.
"Well Mrs. Pharr got involved and she said, 'Boys, I’ll pay for all that you put up,'" Roberts said. "It was more than we could do. So in 1956, we asked the men's club for their help in decorating, and so that’s how it got started."
From there, the tradition grew. Each year, workers created bigger and bolder displays using only red, white and green lights as requested by Mrs. Pharr, who considered them "the true Christmas colors," Roberts said.
Homeowners also got involved, decorating their porches with wreaths, garlands and snowmen. In 1980, CBS journalist Charles Kuralt — a Wilmington, N.C., native who grew up in Charlotte — produced a TV special labeling McAdenville “Christmastown U.S.A.”
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The nickname stuck.
Today, hundreds of thousands of tourists drive to town every December. They cruise down Main Street or walk past a small lake in the town center and sip hot chocolate from the fire station, surrounded by Christmas trees.
"Everybody wants to decorate," Roberts said. "Everybody wants to be a part of it, and it’s a community spirit. People love to get involved, and they’ll tell you in a minute, we keeping it going."
After so many decades, Roberts said he still gets a thrill seeing families drive through the small town taking in the Christmas displays.
"I’ve stood out in front the church a lot of times on Sunday night when we come out, and to stand there and watch the cars come by and see these little kids, their face pressed up against the window and their eyes about as big as a half a dollar, that makes it worth it all," he said.
The lights at McAdenville will burn bright every night this month from 5:30 to 10 p.m. through Dec. 26.
