Minden's 'Christmas City' traditions have a rich history. The community is working to ensure its bright future

On a cold winter’s night in south central Nebraska, the Kearney County Courthouse illuminates the sky with dazzling red and green lights.

In the otherwise silent courthouse square, the sound of bells playing Christmas songs echoes across storefronts decked out with holiday decorations. The peace is occasionally interrupted by a car or bus full of onlookers, many with license plates from other counties, who stop to take a photo before going on their way.

Minden has made a name for itself as the Christmas City of Nebraska, thanks in part to Santa Claus, who declared the town should henceforth be known as Minden, the Christmas City, back in 1923.

But before its association with the holiday season, the town already had a reputation for its electric lights on the courthouse. They were first hung for the Kearney County fair in 1911, a novelty for central Nebraska at that time. In 1915, the community first hung lights around the square in December.

Longtime Minden resident and historian Jack Hultquist said the first holiday lights adorned the courthouse itself seven years later.

"They really got brave and put lights during the winter Christmas season on the courthouse," he said. "That was 1922.”

Hultquist said passenger trains running east to west would be able to see the lights for miles and would often slow down or even stop as they approached Minden.

“Everything was dark," he said. "And here you have this bright thing way down there. What is that, you know? And you get there, and it's just beautiful, and it's color too.”

Hultquist said he remembers being able to see the courthouse as a child from a hill on the north side of Kearney, nearly 20 miles away. Today, the view is blocked by a Dairy Queen and maturing trees in residential neighborhoods built in the last 50 years.

In 1946, a new Christmas tradition began in Minden – the Light of the World Pageant.

The pageant depicts the Christmas story, featuring a booming narrator coming from the courthouse speakers and actors who portray shepherds, Roman soldiers and the Holy Family. When the performance begins, the courthouse square is dark, but when the birth of Christ is depicted, red and green lights illuminate the town.

“When the people come to town, they have no idea what they're going to expect to see, and the pageant gets over and you get – Ah!" Hultquist said. "People really gasp when they see those lights.”

While the actors have changed throughout the years, the pageant still takes place annually with three performances between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Josh Jorgensen, the director of the Minden Chamber of Commerce, said the Christmas City festivities help bring people from across the region to the community. In recent years, the community has added a Christmas City 5K, the Miss Christmas City pageant and a Christmas City parade.

“That economic impact is huge, especially small towns now, they struggle with outside money coming in, and this is something that we have been handed from a century ago that we need to build upon and make it better," Jorgensen said.

The Christmas lights are directly responsible for at least one new business in Minden.

George and Stacy Sinsel began running the Cozy Corner Christmas Store in 2021, which sits on the northwest corner of the courthouse square. George said the out-of-town visitors help keep the shop running.

“We are the Christmas City, and we already had a storefront right on the square, so we thought it'd be good opportunity and something good for the community,” George said.

The holiday crowds in Minden have waned since their 20th century peak, but the Minden Chamber of Commerce is hopeful that new ideas and technology could make the town the Christmas destination it once was.

A livestream of the courthouse lights is available on the chamber's YouTube channel each night during the holiday season and this year, the Light of the World Pageant was livestreamed for the first time. Jorgensen is also looking at ways to improve the Christmas lights themselves.

"Think about LED lights alone," he said. "Okay, how can we switch that? What do we need to do to make the courthouse even better? Those are the things that we really got to focus on and see what we can do to push this forward 100 years."

George Sinsel encourages people to see what his hometown has to offer in 2024.

“It's something we take pride in, and the lights are just beautiful," he said. "I grew up here, I was born here, and, I mean, it's something we stand for and we believe in, and it’s really cool."