SPOOKY SEASON EDITION
Like so many stories we’ve told recently, this one started five years ago, tracing its roots back to the pandemic around Halloween of 2020 Dillon Jason and his family had always been fans of decorating the outside of their home for the holidays, and the boredom and special circumstances of the Covid-19 quarantine led the Williamstown resident to going even more over the top for his spooky season display.
“There was really nothing to do. Families were more stuck together,” Jason said of decorating his home and going around to look at his neighbors’ displays. “We were in the middle of a neighborhood, so we were like, ‘well, that’s a really safe alternative for something to do during the pandemic.’”
He soon reached out to his local town group on Facebook to see if there would be interest in creating a map for people to be able to learn the location of local displays.
“Since everybody really can’t do anything except in the close vicinity of their family, getting in their car and driving around is really easy,” he said.
The idea was a hit, and soon people from surrounding towns began to join.
“So I was like, ‘you know, I’ll just make it for South Jersey,’ and by the middle of that October season, we had about 2,000 and it was like, ‘wow, okay, this is really booming.’”
A HAUNTING ON HIGHLAND
(Located at 163 Highland Avenue, Yardville, NJ)
His idea had now become known as the Lights & Sights of South Jersey Facebook group, but that was only the beginning.
Naturally, if they were going to create a map for Halloween decorations, Christmas, which was right around the corner, had to come next.
“It really kind of blew up from there,” he said. “Within our second year, we were at 20K. Now (in their fifth year) we’re really close to 50K, which is really cool.”
Jason said group administrators approve members to make sure the entries are real and not bots or scammers, helping to maintain a better user experience for the group’s members.
By the beginning of 2024, they had made the switch to covering the whole state. Now dubbed the Lights & Sights of New Jersey, they also added a website along the way to help keep things organized.
“We have a small submission application (on the website), where they can fill out the form once they’re ready and open, which causes less stress on the homeowner and they don’t feel like they need to apply for an application well in advance to when they’re going to be ready,” he said. “We’ll get them added within 24 to 48 hours. We’ll have them separated by their county, and then we actually allow them to fill out if they’re a walkthrough, a light show, a regular display that you would just drive by, and then we have drive-through displays.”
620 Cobblestone Road, Williamstown, NJ
Jason said submissions to be added to the Halloween map are open right up until October 31.
“We have people who apply the day of Halloween because they do a big walk-through, but they don’t have the actors until that day, and they give out candy,” he said.
Jason said centralizing everything onto the group’s website and maintaining the application process has created a lot less confusion for both homeowners and visitors.
He said in recent years they’ve seen around 125 entries for Halloween displays and upwards of 175 at Christmastime, and they’re growing all the time.
Their site also orchestrates a number of giveaways each season, Jason said, and they can be found on their website.
He said the website has a small group of sponsors, with all money raised going back into the group. Using some of those proceeds, Jason himself will strop out and visit some of the displays to bring items to the homeowners or to hand out candy to people visiting the sites.
“We go across the map randomly, and we’ll go to popular walk-throughs,” he said. “We’ll see how busy they are and we’ll just get out of the car and then hand out business cards with candy and stuff if they spot me.”
LIGHTS ON MERRYMOUNT
Merrymount Avenue, Turnersville, NJ
Jason said they always chat with the homeowners first to make sure it’s ok with them to do so, and said for displays that don’t have a walk-through attraction, they’ll still often stop by to leave a token of appreciation.
“They may walk out to a little prize at their door, thanking them for participating and for trying to spread some type of joy in the community,” he said.
For more information about the group or their holiday maps visit the Lights & Sights of New Jersey Facebook page and join the group!