A five-acre property on North 500 East in Franklin, Indiana is about to get a lot brighter. Payton Bohler, who has run the Christmas Acres light display since he was just 9 years old, is now 24 and chasing his biggest goal yet: 175,000 lights spread across the family property, set to switch on Nov. 25 and glow nightly through the new year.
According to WLWT, the display sits at 6211 North 500 East, where three to four cars at a time are allowed to pull into the driveway for a closer look. Admission is free, though visitors who want to give back can drop off nonperishable food for the InterChurch Food Pantry of Johnson County, with donations left right at the front sidewalk.
A Display That Keeps Growing Season After Season
Bohler's hobby-turned-tradition has ballooned well beyond its humble start. A 2023 profile from the Daily Journal described the property as decorated with more than 70,000 lights at the time, while Bohler told the paper his setup had grown roughly tenfold from an original 7,500 bulbs. A separate profile from TownePost traced the display's roots even further back, noting his first show featured around 9,000 to 10,000 lights before he began expanding it year after year.
By the time a regional listing from Festival Country Indiana was compiled for the 2025 season, Christmas Acres was already up to more than 160,000 lights across the same five-acre footprint. Last year alone, the operation saw 1,000 vehicles drive through to see the show, per the same WLWT report.
Food Donations Add Up for a Pantry Under Pressure
The charitable side of Christmas Acres has become as much a part of its identity as the lights themselves. Last season's visitors donated 3,885 pounds of food and more than $1,900, the station's report notes, continuing a pattern that goes back years; the Daily Journal reported that in 2023, Bohler and his family dropped off 919 pounds of food to the Interchurch Food Pantry on Dec. 11 of that year.
Those donations are landing at a pantry that has seen demand climb sharply. The InterChurch Food Pantry of Johnson County was serving about 1,000 households per week as of September, a 21% increase over the prior year, according to WFYI. The outlet also cited Gleaners Food Bank figures showing a statewide food insecurity rate of 12.6%, with 299,260 Hoosiers regularly going hungry.
Plenty of Company on Johnson County's Light Trail
Christmas Acres isn't the only stop for holiday light-chasers in the area. Festival Country Indiana's 2025 roundup also pointed visitors toward Miclette's Rockin' Light Show, also in Franklin, which was lit from Nov. 29 through Dec. 31 with hours that varied by day, as well as a Bargersville display in Somerset that ran roughly 6 to 11 p.m. through December and synced its lights to a broadcast on 88.1 FM.
For now, the exact nightly hours for this year's Christmas Acres season haven't been published alongside the Nov. 25 opening date. What's confirmed is the scope of Bohler's ambition: five acres, a six-figure light goal, and a driveway that will once again fill with cars full of neighbors looking to help stock a food pantry's shelves one visit at a time.
