The Midlands decked the halls this year! Here’s who put up the best winter wonderland

Illuminated dancing pigs, Mary and Joseph with masks as well as an entire North Pole aviation scene with a radio broadcast backstory.

The State asked for photo submissions of people’s winter-time window dressings and people delivered the goods.

Holiday photo submissions came in from Sumter, Orangeburg, Lexington and all around the Columbia area. Below are some of the best twinkling lights, air-filled snowmen and a rainbow of other creative December decor in the Midlands.

But for The Best, The State’s reporters and readers voted on what they believed was the most inspired holiday display submitted to us.

With what’s been a rough and tragic year for many, we hope these photos of holiday decorations will bring you a little joy.

READERS’ CHOICE

Readers picked their favorite submitted holiday decorations through The State’s Holiday Lights Bracket on Instagram stories. With over 2,300 votes, here’s the Readers’ Choice winner.

Winner:

Runner up:

THE BEST

The State’s reporters picked this holiday display as the best off all the decoration photos submitted to us.

The decorations are the work of Matt Moore of the Woodlake neighborhood in northeast Columbia.

Moore calls the display The North Pole Airstrip. It’s not just a bunch of lights and inflatables. Moore’s display comes with a backstory.

The reindeer all have the flu when Christmas arrives, Moore tells in a video created about his decorations. Maverick the Elf takes to the sky with his brigade of flying friends to help Santa deliver gifts.

When seeing Moore’s display, drivers can tune their radios to a certain station to hear the full story. Moore also created a video for his decorations that tells Maverick’s story. The video can be seen at the bottom of this page.

Moore is a hobbyist flier.

Flying “is my passion,” Moore said.

But before having his pilot’s license he was putting together his over-the-top holiday decorations. He created his first display about 15 years ago, he said.

Since then “it’s grown out control,” Moore said, laughing.

This story was originally published December 24, 2020 at 1:10 PM.

David Travis Bland

The State

803-771-8342‬

David Travis Bland is The State’s editorial editor. In his prior position as a reporter, he was named the 2020 South Carolina Journalist of the Year by the SC Press Association. He graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2010. Support my work with a digital subscription