The Richmond Tacky Light tour plays a big part in the Richmond community during Christmas through its display of extravagant holiday decoration.
The first Tacky Light tour started back in 1985 after a popular radio Barry Gottilieb had an idea to pack up several tour buses and tour Christmas decorated homes. Many who participate in this Christmas tradition look forward to the event all year. Kay Smith expresses how much she enjoys the event.
“This is my favorite part of the year,” Smith said. “You can [actually] see us from the interstate and I just realized that the other day and I was like ‘you can see our house’.”
Growing up, Smith’s parents decorated their house with tacky lights every Christmas. After moving to Virginia she found out there was a Tacky Light tour here and that started her interest to participate in the event.
“My parents have decorated like this for my entire childhood,” Smith said. “[My parents did it] back in Pennsylvania and when we moved here we found out Tacky Lights were a thing here in Richmond.”
The time spent on fully decorating her house was a very time consuming process. Smith recalls how long it took her to decorate her house for the Tacky Light tour.
“In total it took us a total of 18 hours spread out in a week,” Smith said. “Usually my husband helps but he was out of town this year, so this was all me.”
One of the main requirements to participate in the Tacky Lights tour is the number of lights displayed on each home. In order to qualify for participation, each house must have at least 40,000 lights present to be put on show. Dj Kawoski shares how he chose to decorate his home.
“We have approximately 42,000 lights all over [my house],” Kawoski said. “[We have] a bit over 200 characters and some of the stuff out here we have built. We try to add a bit to it every year.”
Kawoski first became interested in the Tacky Light tour after joining a tacky run. He remembers patiently waiting until he found the best and most impressive house to shock him.
“Back in 2008 I started dating my wife and she took me on my first tacky run,” Kawoski said. “I ended up in the West End and I remember waiting for a house to wow me. [There was one house] that was massive and that really inspired me.”
The entirety of the Richmond Tacky Light tour is around two hours long and starts and ends in the West End. The Tacky Lights tour is a free event for friends and families to celebrate the Christmas season.
