’Tis the season in Johnson City with Lights Spectacular, LBJ home tour

FROM STAFF REPORTS

JOHNSON CITY — OK, the turkey and stuffing have settled a bit, you’ve hit a few stores and even enjoyed a football game or two. So what’s left to do?

Well, the 25th annual Johnson City Lights Spectacular, that’s what.

Johnson City makes the holiday season bright Nov. 28 with the official lighting of the Blanco County Courthouse, which kicks off the Lights Spectacular celebration.

The lighting takes place at 6:30 p.m. right after a fireworks display.

But Johnson City doesn’t just stop with the flipping of a switch. Along the way, you can dig into some great food at the Chuck Wagon Food Court next to the Johnson City Bank. Throughout the night, there will be live music, and the Antique Tractor Club is sponsoring free hay rides. The rides start at the Texas 290 Diner (weather permitting) and run until about 10 p.m.

There also will be carriage rides available.

If the night winds down and you still have a lot more Christmas spirit left in you, don’t despair because Johnson City has a lineup of activities Nov. 29 including the sixth annual Lights Spectacular 5K Run at 3 p.m. The run is sponsored by First Christian Church of Johnson City, and proceeds support the church’s ministries.

You can register at www.jcfirstchristian.org.

At 5:30 p.m., the Clickety Cloggers get, well, clickety clogging followed by the Lighted Hooves and Wheels parade at 6:30 p.m. The event starts on the courthouse square. Of course, Santa Claus will make an appearance, and there will be lots of chances to get a photo with the jolly ol’ elf himself.

Even after these first few days, you can still enjoy the Lights Spectacular, which includes about 100,000 lights hung from the Blanco County Courthouse in Johnson City and another million or so lights at the Pedernales Electric Cooperative headquarters just across U.S. 290 on the south side of town. The lights go on each night through Jan. 1.

Go to www.johnsoncity-texas.com for more information.

Take lamplight tour of LBJ’s childhood home

JOHNSON CITY — “Back when I was a kid …” “When I was a kid at Christmas …”

How many times have you started a sentence like that when talking about a Christmas from the past? And every time, you try to enhance the story a little more to give your audience an idea about that particular Christmas or past holiday seasons in general.

But unless you could walk someone through your childhood home and show them what life was like, it just doesn’t leave much of an impression.

On Nov. 29, however, you’re in luck because the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park is offering tours of the former president’s childhood home in full holiday trappings during its Timeless Christmas celebration.

“It is his boyhood home where he, his parents and four siblings lived for most of his childhood,” said David Schaeffer, a park interpreter. “We’ll have it decorated for Christmas just like it probably would have looked when he was a boy in the 1920s.”

The tour is free and runs 6-9 p.m. Nov. 29, Dec. 6, Dec. 13 and Dec. 20 at the LBJ boyhood home, located on Avenue G in Johnson City, just three blocks west of the U.S. 281 and U.S. 290 intersection.

Schaeffer said the tours are mostly self-guided, but there will be park staff on hand to answer questions.

“This is the only time during the year that we open the boyhood home up at night,” he said. The facility is open 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. throughout the year for regular, guided tours.

The Christmas lamplight tours give people a sense of how LBJ and his family, as well as others in the community, lived and celebrated the holidays during the 1920s.

“They didn’t have electricity and though they had some indoor plumbing, they still had to use an outhouse,” Schaeffer explained. “What’s cool about this tour is, just down the street, you have (the Pedernales Electric Cooperative) headquarters lit up with a million or so Christmas light, and LBJ was one of the people responsible for getting electricity to rural Texas.”

The Johnsons moved to the home in 1913, and with the exception of a few years during his early teens, LBJ grew up at the residence.

While the boyhood home is open four nights during the Christmas season, on Dec. 6, people can also take in a Frontier Christmas with tours of the original Johnson cabin. From the boyhood home, people can take a shuttle to the nearby cabin, which is decorated in 1860s Christmas style. Schaeffer said some park staff also will be in period costumes.

“We’re so fortunate to have this cabin,” he said. “It is the one the president’s grandfather and grandmother lived in. It’s a dog-trot style, and it’s the original structure.”

The tour is free, and it’s also the only time the park opens the cabin during the night.

“So these are pretty unique tours,” Schaeffer said. “It’s a great chance to kind of slow down and just remember a little bit about the season.”

Go to www.nps.gov/lyjo or call (830) 868-7128 for more information.

Johnson City Garden Club selling handmade ornaments

JOHNSON CITY — If you’re looking for a one-of-a-kind ornament to add to your Christmas tree this year — one made with a loving touch — then a quick trip to the Blanco County Courthouse in Johnson City on a Saturday or Sunday evening through Dec. 21 should be on your “to-do” list.

“Oh, we probably have a 100 different types that we make,” club member Joycelyn Carter said. “All year long, we make them. And when they have the Lights Spectacular (on Nov. 28), where they light up the 100,000 lights on the courthouse, well, we get to set up inside (the courthouse) and sell them.”

The Johnson City Garden Club sells the ornaments, and several other items, Saturdays and Sundays from 6-9 p.m. Nov. 29-Dec. 21. The only time hours are different is opening weekend, Nov. 28-30, when members will be selling the items from 5-9 p.m.

“We have all handmade items,” Carter said. “This isn’t one of those sales where you can go down and buy a bunch of stuff, you know, that’s made in China. Everything we’ll be selling is handmade.”

The prices run from 50 cents through $5 for the most part, she said.

“And most of them probably fall in the $2 to $4 range,” Carter added. “It’s not that expensive, and they’re a lot of nice things.”

The garden club uses the money raised to support other community projects.

“Just come and check it out,” Carter said. “There will be a lot of nice ornaments and handmade items.”

Go to www.johnsoncity-texas.com for more information.

editor@thepicayune.com