There's no snow yet, but it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Sanders County Fairgrounds.

Fair staff members and volunteers spent four days last week positioning Christmas decorations throughout the grounds. "I am happy that everyone enjoys the lights and hope it brings joy to many," said Fair Manager Melissa Cady, who worked with Administrative Assistant Hailey Coe and volunteer Marcia Bulich, while Caretaker Kim McNeil and his wife, Margaret, set up the Nativity and hooked up power to figurines near the flagpole. The Nativity is one of the oldest pieces of the fairgrounds' holiday frills. Last year, McNeil found two deer that had knocked down Joseph and Mary and were sleeping in the 12-foot long Nativity building. "It was so cute; I wish I had a camera," said McNeil, who's been the caretaker for 30 years. He said that someone took one of the wise men several years ago. McNeil drove around town until he found it on the roof of The Circle, a prank, he suspected.

Kim McNeil and Mike Hashisaki, who started decorating the fairgrounds when he was manager in 1992, converted the 60-foot tall flagpole to a Christmas tree. Hashisaki is now a member of the Fair Foundation, a nonprofit organization that funds items not in the fair budget and has purchased Christmas lights in the past. This year, Hashisaki added a second string of lights to each of the six strands of lights, bringing the total to almost 1,800 lights on the Christmas tree. But the grounds aren't the only place to see some holiday gleam. Margaret has already started to convert their caretaker home into a Christmas gala, including 17 Nativities, a task that takes her and Kim a couple months to do, although they usually leave it up till March.

Last year was the first time since 2015, when Hashisaki was manager, that the fairgrounds have been decorated. McNeil and Hashisaki finished getting the lights and star on the flagpole Friday. McNeil reminisced about sitting in the caretaker's house drinking coffee with Hashisaki and deciding to make the flagpole a Christmas tree. "That's how it all started. I'm glad they're doing this again, but it'll never be like it used to be," said the 79-year-old McNeil, who said they used to get visitors for the light show from in and outside Montana.

Cady and Coe put in more than 40 hours positioning just over 100 decorations from small Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Bumbles, the Abominable Snow Monster, to a near 17-foot tall Grinch. Cady said they're planning to create a decorated picture station where people could get their photo taken in a holiday setting. They also put out a bucket for donations once again. They collected $250 last year and purchased a couple new pieces with the donations.

Members of the Fair Foundation will be putting lights on some of the buildings in the near future. It was the Fair Foundation that donated some $7,000 to purchase new lights last year. Cady and Coe might be pulling out more pieces from storage and they'll check some of the other older figurines to make sure they still work.

"We are just happy to be able to put the decorations up for the county communities and hope it brings joy and smiles to everyone," said Cady.  

The Christmas lights will be turned on the Friday after Thanksgiving and will be illuminated for the Cancer Network of Sanders County's annual Chinese Lantern Launch fundraiser on Saturday, November 27 at 6 p.m. The light show will be turned on each night until New Year's Day.