The Geneva Park District is offering a new family-friendly holiday lights display at Peck Farm Park through Jan. 1.
The event at the park at 4038 Kaneville Road in Geneva, called Winter Wonder Lights, opened on Dec. 14.
Through Jan. 1, visitors from 5 to 10 p.m. “can stroll through the illuminated pathways and take in the twinkling splendor,” according to district officials.
Adam Gagley, Peck Farm Park facility manager, said the farm “has historically done a small amount of decorations around the house and things like that, but this would be the first time we’ve done something on this scale.”
“We have lit up a lot. The main focus of lights is the courtyard area of Peck Farm Park, so we have lit the exterior of the house and also done some decorating on the interior of the historic house,” Gagley said. “We’ve done a lot of the trees in the courtyard and the three-sided barn which is a structure out on the property, along with trying to light a number of the different variety of trees that we have within that courtyard area.”
Gagley added “there was no lighting of the prairie area or any of that stuff because power is an issue.”
“We focused our efforts on the courtyard,” he said. “We decided this year to do this because as a rec staff, we had talked about doing this for a couple of years and I think we offer quite a few holiday events that are pretty successful within the Geneva Park District, and we wanted to add another in the hopes of getting more people out.”
Installation of the lights began shortly after Halloween, Gagley said, noting that “being the first year, and doing it entirely in-house with our parks’ crew, there were a number of tests” that had to be conducted.
“There were tests as we added more things, more elements,” he said. “The first week in November is when we really started putting things on trees and the structures.”
During the Dec. 14 kickoff, Santa appeared, Gagley said, “giving folks another opportunity to see Santa.” Staff hoped that leaving the lights up “would draw more people to Peck Farm during a time of year when a lot of people don’t consider going out to a prairie.”
“The hope was to also draw people out. It’s free and we want people to come and visit the lights,” he said. “It’s another thing for families to do on cold evenings when the sun goes down quickly. It’s a way for people to come out and see some cool things.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
