A portion of Poplar Street just got a little more special for a man who makes it a mission to make that area the best place to be around the holidays. On Tuesday, April 15, Macon-Bibb County celebrated the street dedication in honor of Maconite and the man behind the Macon Christmas Light Extravaganza, Bryan Nichols.
“Bryan Nichols is a true leader and a light in our community,” said Mayor Lester Miller. “He has dedicated so much of his time and resources to make our downtown a better place. We are grateful to honor him in this way.”
Nichols, a local business owner, is best known for lighting up Downtown Macon with holiday cheer with help from more than one million Christmas lights.
“In our world, a lot of people come to you with ideas,” said Visit Macon President/CEO Gary Wheat. “But the more I listened to Bryan and his passion, not only for the project, but for Macon, the more he got excited, the more I got excited.”
He started by hanging up each string of lights himself from dusk to dawn, to make sure they were ready for the holidays. It was made possible with a Downtown Challenge grant, that quickly evolved into invested partners as the synchronized light show got bigger each year.
“This really is a team effort every year and I couldn’t do it without the love and support from the community and the sponsors. I get to watch families in the streets every year making memories, kids dancing, people getting engaged, children laughing and playing, lines to the doors of businesses, tons of pictures being taken, and lines of cars as far as the eye could see,” said Nichols.
In March, the Commission unanimously passed an ordinance Commissioner Valerie Wynn brought forward that would dedicate a portion of Poplar Street, from First to Third Street, in honor of Bryan Nichols.
“We love having you in our community and he does love this community, and you all should know that by what he does for us here,” Commissioner Wynn told Nichols and the crowd at the ceremony.
Nichols is one of Macon-Bibb’s biggest cheerleaders. After opening Taste and See Coffee Shop & Gallery in 2013 with business partner Kevin Reaves, Nichols noticed that several Christmas displays were not in place, due to damage from vandalism while in storage. He thought a Christmas light display in Downtown Macon would not only help revitalize the area as residents and visitors came to enjoy the lights.
So, in 2017, he brought that idea to life by personally hanging Christmas lights around Downtown. The 2024-2025 season saw the Macon Christmas Light Extravaganza expanded to 5.5 blocks with 1,000,000 individual lights, creating a stunning experience that brought more than 900,000 visitors to downtown.
“I love what we have accomplished so far, and I look forward to all the great things in the years to come. I feel as though we are still pricking the surface with what we can do with the Christmas lights, but also what we can do as a community by working together,” said Nichols.