LAFAYETTE, La. — If you're looking for Christmas lights, then this little neighborhood may be exactly what you need.
Eight houses on Beverly Drive in Lafayette are all participating in their annual light show. The lights decorating each house flash along to the same song playing on radio station 88.1.
This tradition first began in 2009 with Dr. Andy Blaylock, but after the Blaylocks moved across the street from the Odinet family, it has only grown.
As more houses began to participate, and more cars began to come by, people started asking if they could donate to Blaylock and the others.
"We were looking for an opportunity to monetize this," Blaylock said. "People kept pulling up asking if they could give donations, and we wanted to do something for charity."
The charity they chose was Healing House, Louisiana's only children's grief center, according to the donation signs posted outside each house.
"It's basically a charity for children who've lost loved ones—help them mourn properly, grieve properly, and I think that's a big thing," said Eli Odinet, a participant in the light show. "It can be a really traumatic experience for a kid to lose a loved one, and it just seemed like this charity wasn't getting enough, I don't know, exposure. It seemed we could push it, and what better way to do that than with Christmas lights."
Each house has a donation box near the road for visitors to drop cash or checks into to go straight to Healing House.
"We usually get somewhere between eight and ten thousand dollars a year that we're able to give back to Healing House," Blaylock said.
The light show begins at 5:30 p.m. each night and goes until 10 p.m. on weeknights and 11 p.m. on weekends. Blaylock says they typically go later the closer they get to Christmas.
Blaylock suggests that families with smaller children come earlier in the night when the lines aren't as long.
Blaylock's is the first participating house, located at 305 Beverly Dr. As you move further down the road, you will see seven other houses lit up, as well.
