A Tradition Returns to Hardin Lawn
MSU-Burns Fantasy of Lights
Each year the MSU-Burns Fantasy of Lights begins the first Friday in December with an opening ceremony at 6:00 p.m. on the Hardin lawn. At 7:00 p.m. the MSU Marching Band performs a free concert in Akin Auditorium.
The lights are turned on at dusk each evening through January 1, weather permitting. They are turned off at 10:00 p.m. weekdays and 11:00 p.m. on the weekends.
There is no charge to drive or walk through the display; however, donations are requested to keep the Fantasy of Lights a tradition for years to come. Donations may be sent to:
Fantasy of Lights
Midwestern State University
3410 Taft Blvd.
Wichita Falls, TX 76308-2099
The Story of the MSU-Burns Fantasy of Lights
As it now stands on the campus of Midwestern State University, the MSU-Burns Fantasy of Lights is probably the most spectacular Christmas display of its kind anywhere in the United States. It has been featured several times on national television, and each year thousands of visitors come from all parts of the country to enjoy the truly dazzling sight created by the more than 34 brightly-lit scenes and 20,000 lights outlining MSU's Hardin Administration Building, Moffett Library, Bolin Science Hall, Central Plant, and D.L. Ligon Coliseum.
But as fascinating as the display is, it is not more fascinating than the story behind it. The display did not begin as the community-supported project it is today. It began more than 70 years ago as the project of a young, newlywed couple who wanted to share their Christmas with their friends and neighbors.
In the late 1920s, the recently married Mr. and Mrs. L.T. Burns celebrated their first Christmas together in their modest home on 10th Street in Wichita Falls by setting a small Christmas tree on their front porch and decorating it with a single, blue bulb. It was a small gesture, but an extremely meaningful one for the young couple, especially Mr. Burns, who grew up in a family unable to afford such luxuries as Christmas trees.
As the years passed and Mr. Burns became more successful in the oil industry, the couple continued the tradition they began that first Christmas. Each year they set up a display of some kind, and each year the display became a little more elaborate than the year before.
In 1954 Mr. Burns was killed in a tragic automobile accident, but Mrs. Burns continued the display, dedicating it to her husband's memory. Each Christmas season from 1954 until 1970, the front lawn of the Burns' home, then located at Harrison and Clarinda in Wichita Falls, turned into a fantasyland of animated displays and brightly-colored lights. By then, the display had become so large and so detailed that Mrs. Burns had to hire artists, craftsmen, and mechanics to repair and maintain the old scenes and design and build new ones.
For thousands of Wichita Falls families during the æ50s and æ60s it became a Christmas season tradition to visit the Burns display and see what new scene had been added. On almost any evening in December, cars filled with excited children waited to see this wonderland of sight and sound. Often, Mrs. Burns could be seen telling visitors about the display or her plans for next year.
In May of 1971 Mrs. Burns, who brought so much joy to so many people, died, and the display was discontinued. In her will Mrs. Burns had stipulated that her son could keep the display or leave it to the care of Archer City, a small farming and ranching community located about 20 miles southwest of Wichita Falls where many of the employees of the Burns estate lived and worked. The display was given to Archer City, and it remained in storage for three years. For that period of time, Christmas in Wichita Falls didn't seem quite the same.
Following the death of Mrs. Burns' son in 1974, Archer City offered the display to Midwestern State University on the condition that the display be operated free of charge to the public as a memorial to Mr. and Mrs. Burns. The selection of Midwestern State was natural since it had begun its own Christmas display two years earlier called "The Fantasy of Lights" whereby each of the campus buildings facing Taft Street was outlined with thousands of lights during the month of December. With the addition of the Burns display, the project then became known as the MSU-Burns Fantasy of Lights and took the appearance seen today. But, all of this was not accomplished without a great deal of hard work on the part of many people with nothing to gain but the satisfaction which comes from bringing joy to others.
Because Midwestern did not have the funds necessary to operate and maintain such an enormous project, a nonprofit Fantasy of Lights Committee was formed to raise the thousands of dollars needed to buy paint, equipment, and materials needed to restore the display and prepare it for exhibition during the 1974 Christmas season. A volunteer force of townspeople, MSU students, faculty, and staff, and airmen from Sheppard Air Force Base, many of whom had never seen the display themselves, spent many long hours repairing and restoring each scene. When they were finished, electricians from IBEW Local 681 donated their time to lay wiring and hook up the hundreds of lights and motors necessary to bring the display to life. Officers of the Wichita Falls Police Department pitched in, too, by volunteering to handle security and traffic control.
It was a tremendous undertaking involving hundreds of people, but on the evening of December 4, 1974, the effort proved to have been worthwhile. With several of the Burns' grandchildren in attendance and the carillon bells of the Hardin Tower ringing overhead, the master switch was thrown and the MSU-Burns Fantasy of Lights became a reality.
During that first Christmas season alone, an estimated 200,000 people in 75,000 cars, many of them traveling hundreds of miles, came to look at this magnificent display. It is a continuing memorial to a young couple who wanted to share their Christmas with others, and a tribute to the people of Wichita Falls who worked so hard to bring it about.