Support Our Community Christmas Light Display!

The Stickney Christmas Light Extravaganza needs your help!!!

Hi everyone! It's Shelby and Kelley Stickney here, the two sisters behind the scenes of the famous Second Ave. Middleton, MA Christmas Light Display. This coming year is the displays 18th year! Starting from October 1st, we spend all of our free time outside setting up the display in order to have it ready for viewing on Thanksgiving night. Every year, we pick a different charity to raise money for throughout the season in order to give back to our community. On the second Saturday of December, we even host a free Santa and Friends meet and greet, where us sisters and our friends dress up in costumes (Santa, Mrs. Claus, Rudolf, Grinch, Gingerbread Man and more) to bring everyone together. We take pictures, give out hot chocolate and coffee, talk to the gatherers, and hand out special items to the kids. In 2022, we made Boston 25 News as top 5 best houses in MA to visit on your Christmas light tour. With a goal to make it on ABC's The Great Christmas Light Fight TV show by year 2026, we like to add to, expand and change the display so you never see the same display twice. As you can see, year after year, we have poured our hearts and souls into this display. The Stickney lights has truly become a staple for the Middleton community and surrounding areas!!!! However, last year there was two major setbacks which is now effecting our ability to do the display this year.

First, this past Winter, the pine trees in our yard gave us as run for our money. One of the biggest pine trees within the display fell over during a snow storm blocking Second Ave completely and taking down power lines. Middleton Electric came out to cut the tree and had no choice but to put the trunk, branches, and pieces back into our yard blocking our parking area for the display as well as obstructing some of the view. Another pine tree within the yard, uprooted and would have fell had the other trees not caught it. With it leaning over, we do not want to risk it falling and potentially crushing the shed, fence, and swing set which are all part of the display. Having said that, we had Chris Huston, Middleton, MA and JD Tree and Landscaping come out to give us quote on how much it would cost to cut up and remove both trees. As you can imagine, tree removal is not cheap.

Secondly, last year we had major electrical issues. We found ourselves in tremendous stress trying to keep the display lit. We did not light on Thanksgiving night for the first time in 17 years, found ourselves outside rewiring the display multiple times, had numerous "blow outs" where the lights would just randomly shut off, couldn't light the display on rainy nights in fear of the water effecting the power, spent an obscene amount of money replacing burned up extension cords, and always felt the need to have someone home with the display at all times incase of a fire. It was NOT fun! The "biggest display yet" had officially out grew our current electrical system our Dad installed in the 80's. Trying to be proactive this year, we had Middleton resident and electrician, Brian Vedder of BMV Electric, come out to take a look at our current wiring, outlets, electrical box, etc. He informed us that while our Dad did a good job with the wiring, it is simply not strong enough anymore to power our display and definitely needs upgrades if we ever want to add more.

With the costs of both setbacks, we are at a stalemate because we as a family do not have the means to fix all of this on our own. Both Brain and Chris quoted us at very fair pricing, we just can't swing it on top of all the other out of pocket costs we already spend each year. We put our time, energy, and love into this display and would hate to not be able to do it anymore based on these complications.

This is where YOU come in! We are hoping that with the help of our friends, family, Middleton residents, and all of the surrounding communities, we can turn this all around and still be able to do the display to its full potential. Any contribution, big or small, would be greatly appreciated. All money raised will be used strictly for the lights, tree removal, and paying for the electric updates. We will provide you with progress updates so you can follow along and see how your contribution went into saving The Stickney Christmas Light Extravaganza! We thank you from the bottom of our hearts and promise to provide the best display yet if we can all pull this off!!

You can also follow or like us on our Facebook Page called "Stickney Christmas Light Extravaganza" for more information throughout the Christmas season.

Best Wishes,

Shelby Stickney & Kelley Stickney