CALDWELL, Idaho — Long before families walk beneath more than a million glowing lights at Caldwell’s Winter Wonderland, Killian Glaze is spending his workdays among the branches along Indian Creek.
Glaze, a maintenance specialist with Caldwell Parks and Recreation, is now in his fourth year helping transform downtown.
He and his crew of less than ten people work ten-hour days, and Glaze says he completes an average of 11 trees per day.
The annual Winter Wonderland Festival, hosted by Destination Caldwell and Indian Creek Plaza, is free to attend, but the small group is responsible for every blue, red, and yellow light neighbors come across.
“Parks is a very small department,” Glaze said. “So we just do the best with what we can, and we try to make it look as great as we can with what we have available to us.”
Planning starts well before the holiday season.
Watch | Caldwell's Iconic Winter display uses over 1 million Christmas lights. Meet the crew making sure they glow—
Caldwell Park Superintendent Tim Rhodes said planning begins during the summer, when the department starts ordering additional decorations and taking inventory, with work beginning on Sept. 1.
Rhodes said three 53-foot semi-truck trailers are hauled to the plaza filled with the lights and Christmas decor ready to be set up.
“There is an estimated over one million lights out there,” Rhodes said.
Those lights cover everything from trees and shrubbery to features throughout the downtown area. Crews also install the 42-foot digital Christmas tree, along with finishing garlands and banners, not to mention a separate crew that tackles the plaza's ice rink.
For Glaze, decorating has become his primary responsibility as opening night approaches.
But making Winter Wonderland look good is only part of the challenge. The crew also has to make sure it's safe.
“The main thing is making sure it's safe for the community,” Glaze said. “We need to make sure all the cords are picked up and out of the way so no one trips, falls, hurts themselves.”
That means inspecting the setup, securing cords and testing strands to make sure the lights work, and collaborating with the electrical department to check power supply.
“One of the main reasons it takes so long is we want to make sure that it's perfect,” he said.
The display is on time to dazzle crowds Nov. 20.
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