RANTOUL — Residents searching for one of the largest Christmas light displays in Franklin County can find it near Rantoul.

Memory Lane Christmas Lights will be open for viewing from 5:30 p.m. until 10 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at Memory Lane Christmas Tree Farm, 2710 Vermont Road, Rantoul.

The light display was established in 1992 as a nativity scene in front of owners Harry and Juanita Peckham’s house, according to the Peckham’s website — www.pleasantridge.com 

Since then, the Peckhams said on the website they have been adding figures and lights until every building around the driveway was lit and every part of the yard had a display. 

“We also started collecting 24-inch animated dolls and displayed them in a barn window,” the owners said on the website.

Memory Lane Christmas Lights moved to the tree farm when it was established in 1999, and this year the display includes more than 60 individual figures, including one large piece with a 5-foot swinging bell, the website said. 

The Memory Lane Tree Farm is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays until Christmas Eve. 

Visitors to the Memory Lane Tree Farm are given rides to the trees in the farm’s hay wagon. After a customer selects a tree, Memory Lane workers cut the tree and bring it back to the store, where the loose needles are shaken from the tree before it is wrapped in netting for easier transport. Workers also help customers load the trees on their vehicles.

The Peckhams said on their website a live Christmas tree has been a part of Americans’ Christmas celebrations for more than 200 years. 

The top Christmas tree-producing states are Oregon, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Washington and Wisconsin, according to John Schlageck, with Kansas Farm Bureau. The top-selling Christmas trees are the balsam fir, Douglas fir, Fraser fir, Noble fir, Scotch pine, Virginian pine and white pine, he said.

More than 100,000 people are employed full or part time in the U.S. Christmas tree industry, which annual pumps $1 billion into the U.S. economy, Schlageck said.

Memory Lane Tree Farm, Memory Lane Christmas Lights and Peckham’s Pumpkin Patch are part of the couple’s Pleasant Ridge community, which is home to several seasonal activities, the website said. Pleasant Ridge is named for a one-room school near the farm, which Peckham said he attended for six years. 

For more information about the tree farm and light display, call the Peckhams at (785) 878-3375.

To reach the tree farm from Ottawa, drive 8 miles east on K-68 to Vermont Road, then 3 miles south on Vermont Road and make a right turn into Pleasant Ridge.