GREAT BEND - Nearly every Christmas season, Steve Bird and his family traipsed across Barton County's winter wonderland of lights, and his children fed live reindeer, visited with Santa and rode a train around the glowing displays.
Mike Cargill's 3-acre residence is known across Kansas for the private display called Christmas Fantasy Village, which attracts thousands each year.
Cargill, however, said he wouldn't hang lights this year, claiming rising utility prices and fewer families visiting during the Christmas season has caused the venture to lose money.
Larned's Carr Auction will sell the village Oct. 28 at Cargill's residence, 3 miles south of town on U.S. 281. Items for auction include antiques, lights and a large fiberglass Santa from the 1940s or '50s.
"The price of doing business has gotten so expensive," Cargill said. "The price of insurance, utilities and the price of gas - people have a difficult time traveling two or three hours to the event anymore."
The labor, as well as the cost of hiring 30 part-time employees, also became too much for the family, despite the history of the annual Christmas tradition, he said.
Bob and Carol Martin first decorated the acreage in the late 1970s, adding a few new items each year. When the Martins decided to discontinue the endeavor, Cargill and his wife, Jo, purchased the residence and village in an effort to keep it open.
Cargill said they charged $3 a person and sold everything from candy and hot chocolate to ornaments for the tree in an effort to cover expenses.
A good year generated about 10,000 visitors, he said. They came with their children, rode the small train around the venue and warmed themselves by a fire in between sightseeing.
The light display and scenes drew so much interest, in fact, that Great Bend began its own Trail of Lights, which includes lighted parks, the zoo and downtown.
People also can visit Santa World, which includes more than 20 life-sized Santas from several countries, a display that represented the spirit of gift giving.
"For someone that lives in Great Bend, that's the saddest part of the whole thing," Bird said. "(Fantasy Village) was how the whole thing got started - a private entrepreneurship of someone doing this because they loved it."
"We still will have Christmas here," said Sandy Huddleston, executive secretary of the Great Bend Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We'll miss Fantasy Village, but we have other things to see and do here in Great Bend."
That includes the Santa display, Huddleston said, which was featured on A&E and helped the city garnish eighth place in the nation for the top 20 small towns with holiday spirit.
"Oh sure, it is kind of the end of an era," he said. "You're always disappointed that times have led to this, but it's a fact of life you deal with on a daily basis. Things come and go.
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