Go ahead and make your 'balls' jokes; it really is stunning in person
December 16, 2015 7:37 PM   Subscribe

Greensboro, NC has a unique holiday tradition: the lighted Christmas balls. Every year, the trees of Sunset Hills and surrounding neighborhoods are suddenly filled with thousands and thousands of lighted Christmas balls. Here's a video explaining the history of the balls - and here's how you can make your own! And this year, there's finally drone footage!

For the fourth year in a row, the balls have an associated fun run which raises money for hunger relief.
posted by showbiz_liz (17 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
(I'm from Greensboro, and I can't wait to see these again when I go home for Christmas. They really are absolutely gorgeous.)
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:38 PM on December 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


I never realized, until watching the 'history of the balls' video just now, that they get the balls over the tallest tree branches with the use of modified potato guns.
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:41 PM on December 16, 2015 [2 favorites]


That's a beautiful tradition. I love christmas lights traditions. Where I come from, luminarias can take over entire neighborhoods.
posted by hippybear at 7:50 PM on December 16, 2015 [2 favorites]


I wish I had seen these when I was up Greensboro way one December. For that matter, I wish I had stayed in Albuquerque long enough to see the luminarias.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:09 PM on December 16, 2015


Balls, Balls, Balls
posted by robcorr at 10:00 PM on December 16, 2015


"The balls need to be bigger, and higher."
posted by bongo_x at 11:43 PM on December 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


But are there drone operated balls?
posted by mikhuang at 12:21 AM on December 17, 2015


Oh neat! We're not far away, that might be worth a roadtrip.
posted by ardgedee at 2:16 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


Last year I was in Greensboro so I could attend an annual family holiday party with whole branch of my birth family I hadn't yet met. (I found my birth family in 2013 after 25 years of searching.) I went to the party and met great aunts and uncles, second cousins, third cousins, and dear friends of my long-dead birth father, who I never got to meet: "Your daddy was my best friend." A few people arrived after I was introduced to the larger group, so they didn't know who I was. "We're related!" I'd say, sticking out my hand to shake theirs. My grandmother--never a grandmother until I showed up in 2013--squired me around to all her favorite relatives: "This is my NEW GRANDDAUGHTER, your cousin. Don't you think she looks like me?" It was overwhelming but fairly magical.

The next night it was just my aunt and me, recovering from the party and all the cheek pinching. She said "I have something to show you. Get in the car. Pour yourself a drink in a go cup." And she drove me down every street she could find with the Christmas balls. I couldn't believe how high up many are. It looks like a galaxy overhead, with all the lights suspended at varying heights. We rode mostly in silence, with the windows down. I was dumbfounded by this collective act of generous beauty. I tried taking photos but none of them did it justice. Photos can't really capture that magical atmosphere. I go back next week, this time with my husband. Can't wait to show him.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 4:27 AM on December 17, 2015 [20 favorites]


Merry Christo
posted by davebush at 5:17 AM on December 17, 2015 [3 favorites]


That is very very cool. We will have to try and make it out there to see this.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:08 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


oh man, I forgot about these - and now that I have a kiddo, the time is right to make some for our front yard!
There's also the Sparkleball, also mentioned here on the blue.
posted by bitteroldman at 8:25 AM on December 17, 2015


These have started showing up in Fort Worth. I never knew they came from Greensboro. I'll have to make some to go with my tomato cage Christmas trees. Also, the how-to in the video talks about dealing with the weight of ice and snow. How quaint. It's going to be 70f here on Christmas.
posted by haunted by Leonard Cohen at 8:33 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


Huh, I grew up in Greensboro, and when I lived there they were doing the paper bag luminaries (like in the luminarias picture). I had no idea the tradition had evolved -- I haven't been there in December in a long, long time.

The new version seems much more fire-safe :) .
posted by janewman at 10:20 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


I liked living in a neighborhood that really went all-in on the Christmas Eve paper bag luminaries. Very few people opted out, and even the ones who were going to be out of town would arrange to have other households set their luminaries out on the curbs. With years of practice, we all got really good at doing it well -- having the bags burn in the wee hours was a sign you set the candles wrong. (Probably by using something other than cat litter to fill them. Cat litter was the best, and you could let the cats use it after you collected all the bags the next morning, so it wasn't even wasteful.)

The Greensboro balls do look amazing, but probably a lot harder for kids to do on their own for everyone on the block with a wheelbarrow.
posted by asperity at 3:33 PM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


My town made the blue and for something good!!!! BRB, dying of squee.

We were just out Tuesday having some dinner and walking around and looking at the balls (yes, jokes aplenty), and were wondering how the tradition got started and how the heck the lights are gotten up into the trees and all that stuff.

I love living here. You have made my night.
posted by joycehealy at 7:02 PM on December 17, 2015 [4 favorites]


Oh, hey, the balls made The Today Show!
posted by showbiz_liz at 3:31 PM on December 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


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