Carthage, MO, Christmas Lights, 2015

For the 2016 version, see Carthage, MO, Christmas Lights, 2016.





Carthage, Missouri, (population 14,232) packs quite a Yuletide wallop for a town its size, owing largely to a courthouse square, a huge drive-through display and a historic homes district.




Santa chats with kids on the Jasper County Court House square in 2013.





The courthouse with Christmas lights is seen on a recent foggy night from the Oak Street bridge on Route 66, also known as "Tickle Tummy Hill" and the "Whee Bridge" due to the sensations cause by driving over the bridge at significant speed.

Here's a picture of the courthouse from the other side (east). And here it is in the rain.







This year there are giant ornaments on the lawn, under the decorated tree on the NW corner of the square.




Many of the historic homes along South Grand and South Main streets are decorated, such as the Phelps House at 1146 S Grand Avenue, seen here in 2014. It is also decorated this year.




The house at 1327 South Main St. often features life-size Santas.




They use a Santa of recent vintage downstairs by the tree. In a couple of previous years, there has been an older Polaron motorized Santa blow mold up in a sleeping porch.




The Horus Baker House, 205 W Macon St, has Christmas trees on three levels, oriented right atop each other.

1406 Maple has a computerized display. The tree syncs with music broadcast at 106.1 FM.




I ran across this apparent red-nosed, antlered whale at 1314 S Garrison.





The biggest attraction is Carthage is the huge drive-through display at a Vietnamese seminary called The Congregation of The Mother Co-Redemtrix.





This is the 2015 entrance arch. It's more generic than their old older one which can be seen here and here.




The drive roughly tells the story of the bible and many of the light frame displays are animated. Here is a time exposure of David with his slingshot.




I did say it "roughly" tells the bible story. There is a lot of unrelated whimsy mixed in, like this ice fishing dinosaur




It's always fun to drive through the tunnel.




Lights are even integrated into some of their permanent sculptures, like this turtle with glowing eyes. One year their nativity scene had an ox with glowing eyes and a smoke machine hooked up to its nostrils Sadly, this isn't the case this year.




Fot quite a few years now, the Carthage water tower has been decorated like a hot air balloon during the Christmas season.




Precious Moments, 4321 S Chapel Road, just SW of the city, gets a lot of publicity. The part of its outdoor Christmas display that can be seen from Chapel Road consists mostly of this nativity. The building closes at 5:30 during the Christmas season.




"Mt Moriah Lights" is a computerized Christmas light display set to music that was started in 2010 as a high school gifted project. It is at the Mt Moriah Methodist Church, 15506 Nutmeg Road, ten minutes north of Carthage. The light show is scheduled to operate every night through December 30 from 5:30 to 9:30, except for December 20 when it will be closed. For more information see their website.

See Also:

Joplin, MO, Christmas Lights and Events, 2015

Christmas Lights of Webb City, Missouri - updated for 2015

Oronogo, MO, Christmas Lights, 2015

Pittsburg, KS, Christmas Lights, 2015

Perennial Christmas Lights of Wichita, Kansas

Hutchinson, KS, Christmas Lights and Sights, 2015