Alabama display to be on ‘Great Christmas Light Fight’

ABC’s “The Great Christmas Light Fight” will feature an Alabama display next Monday.

The Gilley family Christmas lights of Ballplay in Etowah County will be among four displays shown Monday on the show, which begins at 7 p.m. CST.

The show, now in its sixth season, describes the Alabama attraction as a “legacy-carrying mechanical display gone wild, including a moving elephant, alligator, dinosaur and more.” The displays are vying for the Light Fight trophy and a $50,000 prize, with a total of $300,000 given away for the season.

The lights have been shining since the mid-1980s, with several distinctive handmade touches added each year.

The late J.C. Gilley, who died in January 2002, put together each fixture with lights and welded metal over a 20-year period. . Gilley, who had at most an eighth-grade education according to his family, used no plans other than the ones he drew up in his mind.

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