Christmas in Cotton Plant

Christmas in Cotton Plant is a local Christmas Holiday tradition for many families.

With the purchase several years ago of an inflatable Grinch, an “obsession-collection” was begun. Christy and Steven Paul were not satisfied with a display of lights…they wanted a 3-d look. They are now the owners of America’s largest collection of inflatables, currently at 500 and growing.

A recent TLC program, My Crazy Obsession Christmas Collection, tells the story of how Christmas in Cotton Plant began, and gives viewers an idea of the amount of work that goes into its presentation each year. Check out the link below to see this video.

A favorite inflatable, an 8 foot representation of Jesus.

From Thanksgiving until Christmas, Christmas in Cotton Plant hosts about 2000 visitors each night it is open (weather permitting). Producing the display is a year-round job, starting with taking down the current season’s display in January; February through June is the time for planning the next year’s display and purchasing new inflatables. Installation begins in July, including digging trenches for over 5 miles of cable required for the display; September through October requires 6-7 hours work each day.

Once the display is ready to go, there are still daily concerns about the weather. Since it takes about three hours each day to inflate the display, an early afternoon weather decision must be made in order to have the inflatables ready for visitors each night. When the display closes each evening, all the entire display is deflated for safe-keeping.

The display is free, and is the Paul family’s gift to its community, in the spirit of celebrating the birth of Jesus, the world’s greatest gift. There is a small charge for pictures with Santa; any donations are gratefully appreciated, and will be used for helping to continue this tradition.

If you are planning to visit the Christmas in Cotton Plant display, please check their Facebook page to make sure that weather has not forced a cancellation for the evening: Christmas in Cotton Plant Facebook page

To see video of the TLC program and other information, see: Christmas in Cotton Plant