Macon’s Christmas light show featured on ABC Evening News

Downtown Macon’s Christmas Light Extravaganza received some national love from David Muir and ABC News last night when the program aired a segment showcasing the colorful downtown display.

At the end of the Thursday night evening broadcast, ABC News Tonight with David Muir featured footage of folks exploring the Christmas lights show and interviews with organizers and locals.

The man behind the lights, Bryan Nichols, said the story has “done numbers” on social media, and he’s received messages from family around the country, even a woman he met in passing five years ago at a Christmas lights expo in Las Vegas. 

“Macon getting that publicity is just phenomenal,” he said. “I hope it drives just that many more people to the lights show and the businesses and the tourism and the hotels because the next level was really getting the world to see this.” 

Nichols was featured in the ABC segment, showing off the dazzling lights and structures and talking about the history of the tradition.

The Christmas Lights Extravaganza went live Nov. 29 with over a million Christmas lights adorning five blocks of downtown Macon.

The celebration is in its eighth year and started as a way to bring back to middle Georgia the treat of watching a grand Christmas lights display, Nichols said.

Nichols said being selected out of the thousands of videos that ABC goes through in a given week is “a pretty big deal.”

Scott Mitchell, owner of Sweet Eleanor’s on Poplar Street, also shared his love for the lights display on ABC, and similarly received pictures of himself on TV from friends and relatives.

Mitchell said he’s glad Macon is receiving recognition for its beauty and the city’s sense of community is what makes it so successful and special. 

Steve Moretti, president and CEO of Macon Pops, said the orchestra’s collaboration to provide original arrangements for the light show make it stand out from other Christmas lights displays around the country.

Moretti and his partner, Matt Catingub, recorded and produced 32 christmas songs, featuring local artists.

The ABC broadcast reassures Moretti and his fellow organizers of the event’s impact He said the “sheer magnitude” of attendance has “meant the world.”

“The first time performing live was surreal,” Moretti said. “Playing live, synchronized to the lights is mind-boggling.”

Nichols said he loves Middle Georgia and, if he could, he would bring light shows to towns across the region. 

“For Macon to be on the map nationally, for something so positive, I’m ecstatic,” he said.

See the segment below: