“May we never get so old that we lose the magic of Christmas,” Roy Thompson, patriarch of the families who host the TMT Farms drive-thru Christmas lights display in northern Bulloch County, said this week, sharing an update on the 2023 season.

That, he said, was an approximate quote from a movie he and his wife Deborah saw recently on the Hallmark Channel, and a wish that reflects his feelings now that what was off for the year is on again.

To cut to the chase, despite what you may have read here a few weeks ago, the TMT Farms exhibit, with a slightly shorter route – but not so much shorter that you’re likely to notice – will open nightly from Dec. 9 through Dec. 26 this year, Thompson announced.

“We’re going to take Thanksgiving off, but we’re going to open it up. …,” Thompson said.  “I got to thinking, and Deborah and myself talked about it, and I was afraid that if we quit, we might not ever start back, and we just don’t want to quit. You wouldn’t believe the number of calls and messages that we have gotten in support of us for doing it.”

Almost canceled

To review, a message posted on the Thompson and McCranie families’ former “TMT Farm Christmas Lights Drive-Thru” Facebook page back on Sept. 9 had stated that “2022 was the last year” for the attraction. It had grown over the past 25 years to extend almost two miles along unpaved farm roads off Old River Road North, drawing tens of thousands of visitors annually.

But Thompson then told the Statesboro Herald, as reported Sept. 12, that the families needed time off for a normal holiday or two but would bring the display back with some changes in the fall of 2024. For years the display had opened the evening of Thanksgiving Day.

Now that the display is back on but not opening until Saturday, Dec. 9, the host families can have a more normal Thanksgiving. But weather permitting, it will be open up to 18 consecutive nights, including even Christmas Eve and the night of Christmas Day.

‘To help people’

As always, the display has no admission charge except the requested donation of long-shelf-life canned or packaged food items, a new toy for a child in need, pet food or cash.

“The other reason is, we want to be able to continue to help people,” Thompson said. “We started that as our mission, and it has served well.”

Donated food items and many of the toys will be distributed, as in past years, through the local charity Christian Social Ministries. Last year, TMT visitors reportedly donated more than 95,000 pounds of food.

Some of this season’s toys, he said, will also be distributed through Chosen Soldiers Motorcycle Association, which plans to have a collection point at Portal.

The pet food donations are provided to the Bulloch County Animal Services shelter. Much of the contributed cash, Thompson said, goes to pay utility bills of people in need identified through power companies.

Roy Thompson is now in his seventh year as chairman of the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners, and he and his wife Deborah own Statesboro Floor Covering.

They and their two adult children and their spouses – Jennifer and Jeff McCranie and Tyler and Chrissee Thompson – and some members of a third generation have carried on and expanded the Christmas display each year with the help of donors and volunteers. It includes real and stage-set buildings, antique farm equipment, wagons, sleighs, Santas, fiberglass and inflatable animals, mannequins and replicas of historical Bulloch County landmarks such as Snooky’s restaurant, Henry’s barbershop and the former Pav-a-lon and pool from the Recreation Department’s Fair Road Park.

The lights come on automatically at dusk – usually between 5:30 and 6 p.m. – and stay on till dawn.

This year, many more lights will be added to the display, and the “town” portion of the exhibit is being reconfigured. A few more signs from Bulloch County sites of yesteryear have been added, Thompson said.

Volunteers assist

Volunteers from church groups, civic and service clubs, fire departments and law enforcement agencies are, as usual, helping to set up the display.

“We really started decorating last weekend,” Thompson said. “We already had three weeks of decorating invested in it. We took all of that down, and now we’ve started over.”

Other volunteers help on the nights the lights shine, and he plans to have more of them on hand this year for increased security.