Five years ago, Brian Bufka came up with an idea of having a drive-thru light display at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds as part of Hometown Christmas.

Since then, the light display has been popular every year as many cars go through the Fairgrounds during the evening hours to see the Christmas lights.

This year, Bufka has added something new to the display – singing lights.

Visitors will get a chance to check out the singing lights this weekend. The light display will run from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. Friday through Sunday at the fairgrounds.

“They’re super fun,” Bufka said. “My child has seen them. I showed the video to a couple of other people. Everybody is excited about it.”

The light display is among many activities at Hometown Christmas, which is sponsored by the Montgomery City Area Chamber of Commerce. The event begins on Friday night with many businesses in downtown Montgomery City being open for customers. 

“We’re trying to have a festive atmosphere that night and pray for not really cold weather,” Chamber treasurer Jeff Arens said.

Also from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Dec. 13, Santa will be in attendance at a tent on Third Street in Montgomery City. 

The Chamber paid $7,500 to purchase the singing lights, which were originally priced at $15,000.

“We had two businesses, ServPro and Porta King, that said they wanted to step up and do a $500 sponsorship to the Singing Lights,” Arens said. “We’ll continue to do that every year in hopes that we can help offset those costs.”

Bufka, who is a Chamber member, added the drive thru light display to Hometown Christmas in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was affecting the entire country, including Montgomery County. His yearly visits to the Way of Lights at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, Ill., gave him the idea to have the display at the Fairgrounds.

After going to the TransWorld’s Christmas Conference in St. Louis in January, Bufka talked to the Chamber about including singing lights to the drive thru display.

“When I was there, I met a gentleman named Tom BetGeorge, who owns a company called Magical Light Designs that he trains Disney on how to do singing animated lights,” Bufka said. “He has a company that builds packages for individuals like ourselves. So I talked to the Chamber into buying a package that we can add to every year. We can add new songs to it. We can add new pieces to it.”

Bufka said people come from all over the world to attend the conference, including countries such as Greece and Italy.

“It’s a very well traveled thing,” Bufka said. “It fills the entire America Center downtown, half of it is Christmas and half of it is Halloween. It’s an amazing thing to see.”

Bufka said with the help from Bundy’s Restaurant, the Chamber bought an AM transmitter so visitors can listen to songs on their radio station while seeing the singing lights. Five songs will be played.

The light display will start at the back gate behind Reach Church into the Fairgrounds and end at the Merchants Building.