With Gratitude And Joy: A Letter to all who make Christmas Island shine
Each winter, I am allowed to work on a project I love for a community I care deeply about. Most people I know are not fortunate enough to be involved in a production that touches so many lives in just forty-four days. Spanning from mid-November until New Year’ s Eve, Christmas Island is Burnside’ s crown jewel during the latter half of the year. Countless lights and cold nights filled with warm holiday cheer draw thousands of visitors to General Burnside Island State Park every season, each bringing home a special memory that I have the true pleasure of assisting in curating. Christmas Island serves our area in more ways than its bright exterior. There is genuine collaboration, sacrifice, and kindness whipped up in the Island formula, which is what the holidays are all about. I want to tell a different Christmas tale, one that recognizes explicitly all those involved in its past, present, and future.
Christmas Island began decades ago with a small group of local leaders and holiday enthusiasts. Its origin started with dedicated amateur volunteers who maintained the large displays themselves for others in their community to enjoy. The idea was a smash success and developed into a treasured regional tradition. Over the years, the heavy labor of its maintenance caused the team to retire the show, but its legacy lived on through its visitors. Some of my favorite interactions with guests of the old Island are the ones where they vividly remember special light displays from the original set of their childhood, such as a magnificent dragon or a large mansion. These happy recollections spurred the idea to bring Christmas Island back for the public in 2021 under the Burnside Tourist & Recreation Commission, and the Tourism Board has offered an annual show each passing year. As Director of Burnside Tourism, I find great joy in keeping our guests’ memories alive and providing surprise blasts from the past in our theming, as with the return of the famous leaping reindeer archway, dancing and prancing above cars as they pass by.
Reviving Christmas Island four years ago was a massive undertaking, and over a year of planning went into designing an Island experience fit for modern visitors. I would like to thank Celebration Lighting, the masterminds behind holiday light displays, for taking on the ongoing design, maintenance, and storage of the light displays. The crew at Celebration Lighting is the behind-the-scenes life behind Christmas Island, and they deserve complete admiration for their professionalism and creativity.
Upon receiving the list of available scenes, our team gets to work matching local businesses and individuals to light displays for sponsorship. To put it plainly, Christmas Island requires extensive sponsorship to make the event financially feasible for reopening. Sponsors support the Island monetarily, through in-kind donations, and advertising our production. Specifically, I want to highlight the City of Burnside, Day Bros RV, Promise Land Barns, Lake Cumberland Resort III, and Superior Barns LLC for their assistance in the Island’ s infrastructure and physical assets. These groups provide the ticketing booths, mobile headquarters, and entirety of Vendor Village facilities for Christmas Island. I have been touched by the level of involvement our community collaborators openly share with us each season, and I welcome any additional partnerships.
Once the gates open to the Island, it takes a small army to accommodate all the offerings we have for visitors to enjoy. The Burnside Tourism employee base consists of a two-person crew. We rely on several volunteers, local shop owners, and Santa Claus to come together and create a small slice of Hallmark on Burnside Island each night. Our Christmas Island crew braves the bitter cold, harsh winds, and unstoppable rain to ensure that the show goes on with smiles on their faces.
Most importantly, I want to thank my partner-in-overtime, Dedra“ Dee” Duval, and our
22 • SEKY- Southeast Kentucky Life December 2025