A family in Kingsville, Ont., has decided to pull up stakes and move after the city council passed a bylaw that would restrict the family’s Christmas light show.
Colten Williams began putting together his Christmas light show a decade ago at the behest of his grandmother, who was inspired by light shows she had seen on TV.
“I’m like, yeah, sure, you know, we can try,” he explained, recounting the story. “So we bought a controller and we had some lights on her house flashing and going to the sounds for a couple of years.”
Williams said that over a dozen cars would stop by each night to see Grandma’s display. She passed away a few years later after a battle with cancer, and the show moved to Williams’ family home on Marshwoods Boulevard.
After a decade, it morphed into a display with more than 60,000 lights that takes 500 man-hours to assemble
“That’s just physically outside, like putting up controllers, you know, running cables, all that kind of stuff,” Williams said.
“Never mind all the behind-the-scenes work. A three-minute song takes me about now 30, 40 hours of programming, which is all done, you know, way earlier in the summertime, in the off months.”
In a normal year, the Williams clan would put on three shows a night, with a fourth included on Friday and Saturday.
“The shows would last about 20 minutes,” Williams said. “Then the next crowd would start filing into the next show.”
The family also used the shows to raise money to fight cancer, with their efforts having totalled more than $45,000 over the years.
But trouble started brewing in Kingsville after several neighbours lodged complaints about their street being crowded with cars for six weeks every year.
That led to a meeting between city council and the Williams family last year as they searched for a resolution. Town staff were directed to survey those who lived in the area to get their thoughts on the display.
“During a survey conducted this year, we found that while many neighbours supported the event, others voiced significant concerns regarding its impact on the quiet enjoyment of their properties and the safe passage of emergency vehicles,” Mayor Dennis Rogers told Global News in an emailed statement. “We have heard these concerns every year of the lighting display.”
This month, the city enacted a new bylaw that would force the Williams family to apply for a permit for their display while also placing restrictions on the number of hours they would be allowed to leave the lights on.
“They basically limited the amount of hours I could have my show from about 28 hours a week down to 10 hours a week,” Williams said. “So you have 500 hours, 600 hours worth of set up time just to have 40 hours the lights on all month long. That’s an insane amount of work.”
Rogers said the council is sad to see them turn off the lights but said the show had outgrown its location as well.
“We were saddened to learn that the Williams family will not move forward with their light display this year,” he said.
“Our discussions with the family last year at a council meeting we both agreed that they had outgrown the neighbourhood.”
Rogers went on to say that the city had tried to work with the family to find an alternative location but was unable to meet their demands.
“They were invited to come in so that we could walk them through the bylaw, answer their questions and help them get approved,” Rogers said. “Unfortunately, they did not take us up (on it).”
With the decision coming so late, Colton Williams decided not to put up his show this year but he is hoping to bring it back in 2026 in nearby Essex.
“I’m currently in the process of building a house, which I hope to host the light show there,” he said. “I’m working with the municipality of Essex and the county of Essex to hopefully bring the light show there in 2026.”
Williams, 28, said he had hoped to take over his parents home when they chose to downsize but now says he will move instead.
“This is not a place we want to call home anymore because it’s not home. It doesn’t feel like home, and it’s not the Kingsville that we used to know,” Williams said.
Since the news broke that the family was taking its show on the road, other communities have expressed interest in hosting it.
“I’ve kind of got a response from almost everyone on social media… There’s other councillors or other municipalities that are like, ‘Hey, come here, we’ll support you. Hey, we want the light show here,” Williams said.
“It just seems like the only municipality that isn’t interested in having the Williams light show is Kingsville.”