It’s a festive light show outside. Inside, Farmstead staff prepares animals for winter

Deanna Rose Farmstead is in winter hibernation mode inside the gates, but its Holiday Lights of Farmstead Lane are dazzling the sky nightly outside.

This is the 10th anniversary for the holiday light display, which runs from 5 to 11 p.m. through Jan. 8. While the Farmstead itself is closed, in the front of the attraction, visitors are invited to enjoy the free display, which is accompanied by music. Just drive into the parking lot and tune in to 90.5 Rose FM to hear favorite holiday songs and movie music as you view the moving light show.

“Just bring some cocoa, cookies and blankets as you view the lights and hear the music from the warmth of your car,” said Meg Ralph, Overland Park’s communications and media relations manager.

Holiday Lights of Farmstead Lane, a unique display consisting of LED panel displays, was designed by Overland Park resident Mark Callegari. His work, which has appeared on the exterior of the downtown Kansas City Marriott, was once the largest LED display in the United States and was included in the Guinness Book of World Records.

“More than a volunteer or donor, Mark is a fantastic Overland Park resident with a passion for technology, lighting, animation and the holidays,” Ralph said. “Mark and a team of volunteers ... dedicate a ton of time to creating, maintaining and updating this unique amenity. We are very thankful to them for doing so.”

Prep work and testing of the display takes place in mid-October. Together, this team works closely with city maintenance staff to put the display up in time for its initial lighting on Thanksgiving night.

This treasured holiday tradition is quite an undertaking, Ralph said.

“Each LED pixel has its own precise location and timing, and is individually controlled by software and can be one of 16 million possible colors. The Farmstead entry barn features the biggest ‘canvas’ for the program. It’s 140 feet wide by 40 feet high, with tens of thousands of pixels,” Raph said.

“These giant displays give Holiday Lights of Farmstead Lane the unique ability to feature a ‘show’ more like a drive-in, rather than a drive-thru display like other holiday displays that use string lights.”

While the Farmstead is closed to the public, things keep humming in the winter months.

“The Farmstead in many ways operates like a real Kansas frontier farm would have, so some of the animals — (cows, horses, sheep, goats, birds, etc. — stay at the Farmstead year-round,” Ralph said.

Many of the animals are fine managing the winter weather, but they all have access to enclosures and barns to protect them, as well.

Some of the Farmstead animal residents that are on loan go back to their owners at the end of season only to return to their “home away from home” in the springtime.

There is animal action during the Farmstead’s off-season.

“By far the most exciting thing that happens each winter is the kidding of the goats,” Ralph said. “Typically around this time of year, or a little earlier, the mama goats are studded, and they spend their winter growing baby goats. In the late winter they’ll move into the dairy barn, which gets transformed into a baby goat nursery.”

Staff will “kid” — or help birth — as many as 80 baby goats.

“Those babies will become our goats that families can bottle feed when the Farmstead reopens on April 1,” she said.

Meanwhile, staff performs maintenance and restoration work on the facility that’s not possible during the busy season. And the Farmstead team spends time planning for the upcoming season working with individuals and community organizations to schedule events.

Expect one big addition at the Farmstead when it opens in April: a new draft horse depot. Construction will begin in the early spring 2023.

“This new building will replace the canopy we had before where horse-drawn wagon rides began and ended,” Ralph said. “The new building will serve as the starting point for these rides in the future, plus provide educational exhibits and hands-on activities specifically related to horses and their uses in farming.”

Ralph said the city is hiring for the 2023 season.

“We will have positions open at many of the attractions, in animal care, at the front desk and in the back of the house,” she said. “It’s a fun job with opportunities to work spring through fall and guaranteed time with the baby goats.”

Those interested in applying can do so at recruit.opkansas.org.

This story was originally published December 14, 2022 at 6:30 AM with the headline "It’s a festive light show outside. Inside, Farmstead staff prepares animals for winter."