Downtown window display, park exhibit kick off season

His animated face nearly touching the glass, 3-year-old Zach Ayers points to a high-flying Jolly Ol' Elf and excitedly slaps one hand over his ear-to-ear grin.

"That's Santa," the boy giggles to his mother. "That's Santa."

Zach's excitement is directed toward the annual Christmas window display at Hutson's Furniture, 43 S. Main.

His mother, Susan Ayers of Cape Girardeau, is familiar with his fervor. "I've come down here since I was a little girl," Ayers said. "They do something different each year, and my kids think it's fun. It's become a tradition for us."

But their night wasn't over. After the visit to Hutson's, Ayers planned to take Zach and his older sister Savanna to Cape Girardeau County Park to view the lighted holiday displays featured there.

"It's not Christmastime until we do those two things," Ayers said.

That is true for many local families, and has been for a good number of years. The Hutsons have been putting colorful Christmas displays in their downtown store window for 39 years, enchanting thousands.

Park attraction

Across town at Cape Girardeau County Park, it is the 14th year for the Holiday of Lights, which brought nearly 50,000 cars full of amazed viewers last year.

"I think they keep coming back because it's a tradition in this area," said Bruce Watkins, the park superintendent. "Families love it. There are not a lot of other towns close by that have this type of thing."

What began with 11 displays in 1987 has grown to nearly 200, as church groups, individuals, business organizations and civic groups build lighted holiday displays along the drive through Cape County Park North. They include an assortment of displays, from the new Statue of Liberty, which shows Lady Liberty placing a flag on a Christmas tree, to an elaborately decorated stained-glass nativity scene.

"These tend to be unique," Watkins said. "People love to come out and see what these groups have dreamed up. We're really proud of what it's become."

No less proud is Charles Hutson, who began decorating his store window with his brother 39 years ago.

Hutson said he often hears stories about parents who came to see the window as kids now bringing their children.

"It certainly has been a tradition for the area," Hutson said. "People drive quite a ways to see it. We started out with five different pieces, and now it's pretty complicated."

Bridge featured

This year's display features the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge with Santa's elves cheerfully wearing hard hats and working on the new bridge. Trucks carry loads of presents back and forth across the bridge. St. Nick flies overhead on a snowflake-propelled sleigh.

The window shows a proposed Southeast Missouri State University River Campus completed on the Missouri side of the bridge.

Hutson said variety helps bring people back.

"We try to keep it different, change it around," he said. Model trains are featured every other year, he added.

Decorating the window has become a tradition for his family.

"The family has always built it," he said. "We come up with the ideas, discuss them and then throw them in the hat."

One year the Glenn House was the theme, another year featured Riverfront Park, and in 1999 the theme was Y2K.

Children passed by the window in streams over the weekend.

Paul Mize, 8, stood and stared.

"He's quiet, but he thinks it's pretty cool," said his mother, Karla Mize. "I've been bringing him since he was a baby."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137