This year’s weather has certainly been…interesting.  Snowfall, and precipitation in general, are running well below average across the state, and while winds are not uncommon this time of year, the year-end wind storms were on another level.

Together, those two factors combined to take their toll on an unexpected victim, the light show at the City Park that has become a beloved community fixture over the past few years.  Brad and Melanie Coleman, along with a number of helpers, have been planning, programming, constructing, and running the show since they created it several years ago, and officially announced that it will not return this season.

“Yep, the show is done for the year,” Melanie said recently.  “Some of you may have noticed the Christmas show was turned off last weekend and taken down earlier this week.  We have been battling the weather and keeping everything up ever since the big wind storm.  Our biggest problem was the lack of freezing temps.  We use 12” stakes and usually we have cold enough temps to freeze them into the ground.  Instead we had a bunch of rain which made the ground soggy.  When the wind came up, it would tug on the props and pull the stakes out of the ground.  We were just putting them back up as they fell.  Last Saturday we had some decent wind that took down multiple of the snowflakes and a couple of the trees.  This time, both trees were damaged and could no longer be put back up.  When we looked at the weather and saw more rain and warm temps, we decided to take it down so we didn’t continue to damage it.”

Despite valiant attempts to keep the show going, including an assist from ATC—Sterling Smith came and helped fix the mega tree when the star completely broke off in the big windstorm on December 17th—it was deemed too much to repair for this year.  “The damage done was minor in cost, but would have been time intensive to repair. Brad had some big projects he was juggling at work, and we just didn’t have the time needed,” Melanie said.

Luckily for light show lovers, this is not the ultimate end of the story.  One hopes that the weather next year will be more in line with the past in terms of temperatures to keep the ground frozen, and even if not, Melanie explained that “We have plans to redesign some of the elements to hopefully help this problem (and hopefully the weather will cooperate next year!).”

A planned Patriotic Light Show in conjunction with America250 will not be possible this winter, though there are some plans to potentially make extend that celebration to around veterans Day of 2026 and start the light show early.  Those plans are still under discussion.

The Colemans stated that the damage that was done can be repaired, and that the city of Malad provides a small budget for the maintenance of the show.  Anyone wishing to donate to the show for 2026 can contact the city directly about donating directly to the fund.

The website for the show has been taken down at present, but Melanie reported that a request line available of songs from past years was wildly popular this year, with “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” and “Candy Cane Lane” being the most requested. 

The Enterprise would like to thank the Colemans for bringing such a fun and entertaining holiday tradition to the valley.  Here’s hoping that next year is the biggest year yet for the light show!