Reindeer Flight School is Milledgeville’s largest light display with over 40,000 lights to see and it's all hosted by one local filled with Christmas spirit, Richard Phillips.
“This is the eighteenth year that I have hosted Reindeer Flight School,” said Phillips.
Phillips was originally from Milledgeville but moved to Sparta to open a shop. There he would repair electronics and on one faithful day, Santa sent him a large reindeer to repair.
“A while later, that customer moved away and gave me the reindeer,” said Phillips. “After her, I had more customers who would ask me to fix their Christmas decorations and would give them to me later. Then, my late wife found a couple of decorations she liked and before I knew it, we had a whole mess of reindeer.”
The couple began to decorate their yard with the Christmas decorations and continued to collect more over time, from donations and searching through yard sales.
“We used to do craft shows in the yard to begin with and I was Rudolph in the craft show. I had an outfit that my wife made for me and I was just Rudolph in the yard with the other reindeer,” said Phillips. “But I had always wanted to be Santa so my wife made me a custom suit and together we began to build our own pieces.”
From the craft shows, the yard evolved into its own walk-through display featuring thousands of lights strung upon trees, homemade reindeer, candy canes, wreaths, snowflakes, a train, a homemade grand red sleigh, Santa appearances and more.
“Everything we have has a personal touch to it,” said Phillips. “Everything we did not make ourselves, I tinkered with or changed.”
Phillips highlighted his barn display during the interview as an example. In recent years, he has been collecting Santas and has made a large, glass display inside his barn. The Santas are displayed on different elevations and a train track is in the center of their line-up.
“It was once a greenhouse but during a cold winter, I lost my plants,” said Phillips. “Now I use it for storage until I remove the decorations. Then, it takes about two to three days to set up the Santa display and the permanent display stays on the front side of the barn.”
Each year, Phillips puts up the entire display primarily by himself with the help of a few neighbors. While he notes it can be hard to get everything ready, the turn out and happiness that the walk-through display brings is worth it.
“I love Christmas and this project became something that just took off,” said Phillips. “I love being Santa, seeing the joy that I bring to people, and just overall seeing the Christmas spirit.”
Reindeer Flight School will be open through Dec. 25 from 6 to 9 p.m. There is no admission, but donations for electricity fees are appreciated. Santa primarily visits on Friday and Saturday nights, if it’s not raining. For updates and pictures, Phillips encourages people to check the Facebook page.