AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF)– Even though the Christmas season has passed, one local man is leaving his musical Christmas light display up indefinitely to keep the spirit of joy alive a little longer.

John Jarman has called Augusta home since he was eight years old, and this past Christmas he decided to try something he’s never done before– a musical Christmas light display.

“Ever since I was a kid, if it lights up or makes noise or goes fast, I was a fan of it,” Jarman said. “It’s just a childhood dream. I decided, let’s do it.”

He started working on the first song in August, and spent almost every weekend leading up to the holidays working on the project. The display went live the day after Thanksgiving, and he says the community response shocked him.

“People left notes, or if they knew me I got countless messages on Facebook or text messages. Thank you [notes] here and there,” Jarman said. “Somebody would come into work and they’d say, ‘Oh hey, the line was backed up to the bridge,’ and I was like, ‘Wow’.”

On the Facebook page, CSRA Christmas light displays, he invited people to stop by and enjoy his creation.

“I never in a million years thought it would have gotten this popular. So that was surprising, but it was also really awesome and pretty humbling,” Jarman said. “I kept posting, and posting, and posting, and people just kept responding.”

He says he felt sharing this with the community was especially important in 2020.

“Last year did not give a lot of folks the chance to just exist and be somewhere that made them smile. The TV wouldn’t do it between COVID and the election and all that, and everywhere else was closed,” Jarman said. “I think it was really neat to know that people could just go somewhere and just be for a minute, just exist and look at something and smile and enjoy it and then go about their daily life.”

Even though Christmas has passed, he’s decided to leave the display up indefinitely to provide people with an extra outlet of joy.

“They have to come down at some point, but at the same time, if people are still responding well to it and are still enjoying it, I will keep updating the music and we’ll see,” Jarman said. “I don’t anticipate the summer time, it should be before then, but we’ll give it a whirl. I just want people to have their fill of it because after last year, I think everybody deserves a little bit of happy.”

The house is located at 427 Warren Rd., Augusta, GA. Jarman says he runs the timer for the lights from approximately 5 – 11 P.M.