A Timeless Glow: Fort Wayne’s Night of Lights Continues Cherished Holiday Tradition

Every year, tens of thousands of people congregate in downtown Fort Wayne the night before Thanksgiving to watch light displays illuminate the night sky and usher in the holiday season. It’s a tradition that has spanned decades, passed from generation to generation, and shared with transplants and travelers alike. 

While the event itself has transformed throughout the years, the core of the event remains the same, with the two largest displays, Santa and His Reindeer and the Merry Christmas Wreath, serving as a reminder of the tradition’s origins. 

It Begins with Displays at Wolf & Dessauer

Starting in 1937, the Wolf & Dessauer Department Store started hanging up large, custom-made light displays. The store was a popular retail location for Fort Wayne residents, and its animated holiday windows attracted even more people to visit the store. Santa and His Reindeer and the Merry Christmas Wreath would grace the side of the store each year (except during World War II) until 1959, when the company relocated.

Then, for the next 20 years, the displays disappeared.

Santa was found in 1979 by Jim Green, a GTE phone installer, who found him and his reindeer stashed away in an old warehouse. With the help of local media, Green helped drum up interest in restoring the massive display.

According to Northern Indiana PNC Financial Services Group, “more than a half-dozen local trade unions, along with the Chamber of Commerce and scores of interested citizens, donated the expertise, money, supplies and time necessary to restore one reindeer. After 200 hours, a single reindeer was lit on the side of the Fort Wayne National Bank building. The overwhelming nostalgic response prompted enthusiasm sufficient to continue the restoration project through most of 1980.”

By the eve of Thanksgiving in 1980, the Santa display, spanning 155 feet long, holding 24,717 bulbs, and weighing five and a half tons, made its comeback in downtown Fort Wayne. Every year since, an event has been held to celebrate the first lighting of the display.

The Merry Christmas Wreath, which has a diameter of 32 feet and weighs three and a half tons, had a similar experience. After being discovered in 1987, it was then “cleaned, repainted, replaced lamp sockets, rewired circuits and installed 8,000 light bulbs” by employees, according to I&M. 

Both displays were retroactively fitted with LED lights in the 2000s. According to Greg Finner, the electrician from Shambaugh & Sons who maintains Santa and His Reindeer, says this makes the display more energy efficient and easier to maintain.

“The old bulbs were glass bulbs, so the tiniest bump would just shatter them,” he explains. “At the time, we were replacing hundreds of bulbs every single year. Now we’re down to maybe 100 at best, but usually it’s maybe 65 or 70 of them, just because of the acrylic lenses and the LED technology that is now present.”

With the age of the displays, great care goes into ensuring they make it up each year. 

Finner starts his work on Santa in October, visiting the storage space to ensure the display hasn’t been damaged or vandalized in any way since it was last moved. He only recounts one year where vandalism was an issue, finding the display was hit with paintballs. From there, most of the work is typical maintenance. He calls the piece both delicate and resilient. 

It takes three days for Santa and His Reindeer to be placed on the PNC Center’s exterior, including lots of “bending and twisting.” Finner says they continually monitor the displays’ joints, framework, electrical components, and sockets, some of which are still original, to ensure they stay intact as they set them up and tear them down. 

He has been involved with the upkeep since the 1990s, including upgrades, like new light bulbs, and preparing it for display each year. In addition to new lights, the display was upgraded to aluminum and sheet metal, rather than the plywood and two-by-fours originally used to construct it. He notes, however, that that specific upgrade was done before his involvement. 

As the decades go by, the displays have received modern upgrades that ensure they live on for generations to come, but they maintain the same iconic look they’re known for. Whether it was shoppers gathering to marvel at the lights and displays from Wolf & Dessauer, nostalgic residents in the 80s supporting restoration work, or present-day folks attending Night of Lights, visiting downtown Fort Wayne to see the Christmas lights is undoubtedly an iconic, longstanding Fort Wayne tradition.

A Growing Experience

Much like any tradition, this one grows and changes as the years go by.  While much of the event remains the same, Tamara Cummins, Downtown Fort Wayne events and program manager, says there are only a few changes this year. Crowds will make their way to more than six different downtown locations this year, seeing decorated window fronts along the way, and enjoy smaller events across the city’s urban core on November 26.

The light festivities officially begin at 6 p.m. with the Turret Lighting at the History Center, 302 E. Berry Street. The center’s executive director, Todd Maxwell Pelfrey, says for the first time in 15 years, they’ve updated their display.

“In the past, we have had multi-color LED spotlights,” he explains. “They were pretty and they had some ability to program some basic lighting scenes, but this year, with the new lights and the new controls, we’ve upgraded the scene that we will be presenting when we kick off Night of Lights.”

For those looking to experience more of the event’s history, Pelfrey adds that several Wolf & Dessauer pieces, like the animatronic elves used for the window displays, are on display during the Festival of Gingerbread at the History Center, which opens for a preview during Night of Lights before officially opening from Nov. 28 until Dec. 21. 

After the History Center, guests can see the Santa’s Workshop display at Fort Wayne Parks & Recreation Community Center light up, as well as displays from Ash Brokerage, Elevatus Architecture, The Botanical Conservatory, and the Embassy Theatre. And of course, Santa and His Reindeer on the PNC Center and the Merry Christmas Wreath on the I&M Building remain a staple of the evening’s events. 

Over the last decade, Northern Indiana PNC Financial Services Group has started giving a local nonprofit the opportunity to auction off the experience of turning on Santa displays. (Finner adds an interesting note here: the display is controlled with a garage door remote, yet another modification done before his time caring for it, but one that’s proven to be effective.)

Catherine Hill, vice president for Northern Indiana PNC Financial Services Group, says it’s a chance to support a local nonprofit and participate in a beloved local tradition.

“To be up in the cherry picker, eye level with this huge fixture, and to be the one who gets to turn it on when 50,000 people are doing the countdown is pretty exciting,” Hill adds.

In past years, the event concluded with a fireworks display from the Tincaps, but as of late, Parkview Field has become its own holiday attraction with a walk-through display featuring more than one million lights, which has impacted their ability to provide the spectacular finale known and loved by Night of Lights attendees. Cummins says the Parkview Field lights are a great addition to holiday festivities, but the missing finale left a gap in their programming.

“But it kind of left a space in the lighting, where it was like, if we don’t have fireworks at the end, what else can we do?” she says.

The answer? A drone show. The eight-minute show will be the first of its kind in Fort Wayne and will cap off the night, bringing a new dynamic to the nostalgic event. 

“We’re excited for this to be the premiere drone show for Fort Wayne,” says Cummins. “I’ve been working so hard on it. We didn’t think it was going to happen…then here we are in the final 11th hour and it’s happening, so we’re really excited about that.”

An Iconic Fort Wayne Tradition

While small pieces transform over time, those involved in planning, sponsoring and maintaining Night of Lights all recognize the event for what it is – an iconic Fort Wayne event. 

“Fort Wayne loves this tradition…There’s just a buzz in the community,” says Hill at PNC. “Santa and his reindeer on the side of the PNC Center building is one of Fort Wayne’s most iconic images. We take a lot of pride in getting to deliver that experience and those memories to generations of Fort Wayne families.”

Cummins, who is in her second year of organizing Night of Lights, holds similar feelings. Despite the pressure to seamlessly pull off an event that draws 25,000 to 50,000 people to the city’s urban core, she says the joy the tradition brings is worth it.

“I feel like there’s a lot of stress leading up to it because there are so many partners and businesses with with the stake in this production who are really wanting it to go well,” she says, “but then there’s also the silver lining of now things are starting to happen and you’re seeing smiles on people’s faces as they get excited for the holiday season, so it is stressful but it’s also worth it.”

HolidayFest returns November 26 through December 31, 2025.

Night of Lights begins at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 26 at the History Center. Road closures begin at 5:30 p.m. and end at 8 p.m. For more information, including the official HolidayFest guide, visit https://downtownfortwayne.com/events/holidayfest/.

This story is made possible by support from Downtown Fort Wayne.