If rolling along darkened country lanes, beneath a mile-long canopy of woods festooned with more than a million glittering lights sounds like it belongs among your family’s Christmas memories, then the North Louisiana hamlet of Calhoun hides a holiday tradition that you need to see. Among all the attractions along the Holiday Trail of Lights, come see what one family has created with years of planning and an unbreakable commitment to community. On family land off of Highway 151 in tiny Calhoun, the Hanson family has built a breathtaking experience, where more than a million lights extend a glittering canopy over a mile and a quarter of road for “Trailers” to experience from the comfort of their cars.
Candy Cane Lane
Although Ben and Amy Hanson only began building Candy Cane Lane after buying their 52-acre wooded property near Monroe in 2016, the dream of creating a unique Christmas lighting display began much earlier. For Ben Hanson, an East Texas native and pipeline inspector who never tired of taking his children to drive through local Christmas light parks each year, it had long been a different kind of pipe dream. When the family moved to Monroe in 2001, Ben, missing the extravagance of those East Texas displays, dreamed of creating his own while working as a traveling materials inspector for pipeline companies—a job that sent him all over the country. In March, 2017, Ben quit his pipeline job and dedicated himself to the project of building Louisiana’s ultimate lighted driving tour full-time. “Our friends all thought we had lost our minds,” laughed Amy, and on Thanksgiving Day, 2017, when Candy Cane Lane opened to the public for the first time, Ben admitted that their greatest fear was that no one would come. They needn’t have worried. The wild enthusiasm that greeted the opening soon had the Hansons attending parish engineering meetings to plan for directing the resulting flow of traffic!
The Hanson Family
The Hanson family: Ben, Amy, Parker, Kaleb, Adrienne, and Silas
This year, the Hansons’ annual lighting extravaganza will be open to the public from November 10 through December 30. But preparing each year’s display begins much earlier. To evaluate every strand and circuit, Ben noted that the family begins testing around July 4 to discover where rabbits have wreaked havoc, squirrels have broken a bulb, or a deer has tripped a wire. Every two years each tree is re-wrapped to allow for trunk growth. Every day’s work can only be tested once darkness falls. It's a labor of love that takes the family six months to assemble. But the result? A one-of-a-kind, hand-built, family-run folk art masterpiece that illuminates not only a stretch of North Louisiana woodland, but also the hearts of all who experience it. May Christmas always shine so bright!
Come see Candy Cane Lane for yourself, by car or by hayride. Open nightly from November 10—December 30 at 170 Hwy 151 North in Calhoun. Candycanelane.net.
