Shown here is a home on Prospect Street.

Light up Cameron returns as fundraiser for Cameron Missouri Main Street, Inc.

Ah, the bright lights of Christmas!  This year, they are popping up everywhere around Cameron.  Good weather and a fairly good economy have helped everyone create a magnificent display of color.  Cameron has a long tradition of celebrating Christmas with terrific light displays.  I do not personally remember anything before the 1960’s, but I do remember Reindeer Lane and Candy Cane Lane, which were on Godfrey and Nettleton Streets and North Cameron Heights respectively.  It is always exciting to see an entire neighborhood lit up.  In present times, Eagle’s Landing and Willowbrook seem to be the neighborhoods that have the most participation in the area.  I used to deliver pizzas and got a call one December night from a home in Willowbrook.  She gave me the address and then added, “I’m across the street from the Christmas Vacation house.”  She was right.  It was glorious.

The only year I remember there not being much lighting was Christmas 1973, when the OPEC (that’s Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) oil embargo and fuel crisis was happening.  To make a long story short, The United States supported Israel in a short but intense war with Syria and Egypt, and though not one US Soldier was on the ground in the Middle East, OPEC decided to stop sending fuel to any country in support of Israel, which led to a fuel shortage and financial crisis here in America.  There was gas rationing, price gouging, long lines at fuel pumps, and gas stations closing because there was no fuel to be had.  This was at the end of a year that was already tough in the Midwest.  There was terrible flooding in the spring, crops were slow to go in, dozens of tornadoes roared across the plains including at least eight in northwest Missouri, and then the fuel shortage.  Farmers who struggled with weather in the spring had no fuel for a dismal harvest in the fall.  I was nine years old and remembered it as the year Mother stopped buying donuts for breakfast because she had to have gas to get to work.  So, when President Nixon asked the nation to forego Christmas lights to save energy, since there was nothing to be happy about anyway, we did it.  It was literally the darkest Christmas I remember (although it was by far not the worst, but that is another story.)

It took several years to regain lights during the holidays, but it did happen.  Soon it was The Big 80’s.  I was in college then, and we decorated our dorm rooms and apartments with so many lights we didn’t need incandescent lights even to study small-print textbooks.  The only hard part was taking it down.  My mother told me how I stared at the Christmas tree every day of my first Christmas (I was nine months old) and then howled in protest when it was being put away.  I feel the same way now.  Why can’t we have lights all year round?

At one time, the City of Cameron had a Christmas lighting contest, and the winner won a free month of electricity.  There were some spirited competitors in those years!  Unfortunately, that contest ended a few years ago.  Happily, Travis Eldredge wanted the contest and the spirit of the season to continue, and created the Light Up Cameron contest, complete with Facebook page.  The Light Up Cameron lighting contest continues this year, sponsored by Cameron Main Street, Inc., and a Thrivent Financial Action Team, who has donated prize money to the effort.  The contest this year is a fundraiser for Cameron Main Street in support of their plan to provide more ambient lighting in McCorkle Park and Downtown Cameron all year round.  Hooray!

To be recognized for your mad lighting skills, simply take a picture of your display, and post it to the Light Up Cameron Facebook page or email it to grhibler@hotmail.com.  It is optional at that point to list the address of your display.  To enter the contest, find the entry form on the Light Up Cameron Facebook page, print it, and return it with the $10 entry fee to either MTE Office Center at 216 South Walnut, Third Street Fusion at 107 East Third, or Cre8 Studio, 217 East Third in Cameron.  You will then be asked to give the address so that people can get a closer look at your work.  You can also pick up a form at those locations if you do not have a way to print it yourself.  There are ten prizes of $25 each, designated as follows:  First, Second, and Third place in the categories, which are Residential, Business, and Church, and then the Overall Favorite across all the categories.  That way, the winner of the overall most votes will receive a total of $50 in prizes.  In the Church and Business categories ONLY since churches and businesses are public places, pictures of interior displays can be used.  (We DO NOT allow interior pictures of residences to be put on the Facebook page).  The prizes are gift certificates to MTE, Gypsy Rose, All Planted Up!, The Plant Place, Leibrandt Jewelry, His and Hers Sports Gallery, Third Street Fusion, All My Favorite Things, McCorkle’s, and Iron Horse.  Voting will be done by a poll on the Light Up Cameron Facebook page.  The contest begins December 5, 2022.  Voting ends December 30, and prizes will be awarded on December 31.  Good luck to all the contestants!

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Cameron, MO 64429
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