HENRICO, Va (WRIC) – Nearly half a century after Bobby Phifer first hung lights around the front door of his childhood home in the West End, a pandemic has partly prompted his family to make the difficult decision to sell it.
Since the 1970s, Phifer’s screen has grown in size and popularity, garnered more than a million lights, and won the state crown in the 2017 ABC television special show ‘Great Holiday Light Fight’.
The family tradition has also become an annual holiday affair for central Virginians and is likely to change forever when one of the two family homes is sold.
“I got sick of COVID and was out of work for a while, so I’m late with my mortgage,” Phifer told 8News on Thursday. “The only thing I can do to save my house is to sell our house next door.”
Phifer bought the adjoining Asbury Court house after his father’s death in 2004. He moved in and quickly incorporated the property into his decorative “hobby,” as he called it.
“We came every Christmas because you know it’s very important to sit in the car, get ready – hot chocolate and everything to go see the lights,” said Rilee Harman, a young father of two who continues his childhood tradition.
Phifer’s daughter Katelyn Phifer expressed personal loss when she thought about the 2021 vacation.
“That’s all I know, so only the loss will kill me. It will be really weird without it, ”she said.
Although they will continue to turn on lights, lay lawn decorations, rotate a satellite to track Santa and turn on dozens of circuit breakers, the community will continue to feel happy and bright when visiting on the upcoming holiday nights.
“You can’t keep someone else’s legacy,” Goochland’s Jack Martin said of the possible new ownership of the 9606 Asbury house. “You know, if I bought it and lived next door, I would of course try to help.”
“Anyone who buys this house if they don’t put something in that yard or something, it’s going to be Scrooge,” Bobby Phifer said.
