Lights of the Northwoods plugs in for its 9th season

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

December 8, 2025

RHINELANDER – For nearly a decade, local and statewide businesses have played a crucial role in making Lights of the Northwoods a reality, supporting the nonprofit’s holiday event with financial contributions, materials and volunteer hours.

“A week ago, we were down at the park with [linemen from] Wisconsin Public Service… and we got lights up into those tall trees in a matter of three hours,” Bill Freudenberg – who serves as the nonprofit organization’s vice president – said. “We can’t do it by ourselves, so they’re more than happy to come out every year – then, we give them gift cards at the end of the year for helping us out.”

Other local businesses sponsoring the event, per lightsofthenorthwoods.org, include Trig’s Rhinelander, Schoeder’s RV & Marine, Superior Diesel, Ripco Credit Union, The Home Depot and more.

“It would be nothing without them,” Freudenberg said.

Each year, Freudenberg said the event seeks to support food-insecure community members through literal light-hearted fun.

“I got involved with Lights of the Northwoods eight years ago, and when I first saw [the light show], I thought [it was] unbelievable – then they talked me into joining the group,” he said.

Held annually at Hodag Park in Rhinelander, Freudenberg – who serves as the organization’s vice president – said community members and families are invited to drive or walk through a Christmas light display, and – if able – make a donation or bring non-perishable food items to benefit three local food pantries.

“Last year, we collected 4,800 pounds [of food] for three food pantries [in] Tomahawk, Rhinelander and Elcho,” he said.

Though a seasonal event, Freudenberg said Lights of the Northwoods is a year-round organization for members and volunteers alike.

“They put in countless hours,” he said. “This is not just for three or four months – this is year-round, [because] all this stuff takes so much time. You’re looking at two months of putting it up, two to three months of taking it down and it’s another couple months to bring everything back to the [storage] area [where] we check the wiring and make sure everything is working again for next year.”

Community support = local fun

Freudenberg said Lights of the Northwoods depends on a combination of community donations, grants and event collections to operate. 

“We send out mailers and some of us go banging [on] doors,” he said. “We have our consistent [donors]… so, generally, [funds] come through [those donors]. Then we also rely quite a bit on our collections at the end of the year.”

Freudenberg said business sponsors and volunteers also provide essential support through their time, materials and expertise.

“When you look at the amount of hours that go into this with all these different people, we have some pretty dedicated people,” he said. “We have fun doing it, but it’s a big event.”

Each year, Freudenberg said the nonprofit begins fundraising for Lights of the Northwoods during late summer.

“We don’t do any major fundraising until, probably, August or September, because people take a couple months off during the summertime and take a little break,” he said.

Then, in the fall, Freudenberg said hundreds of light displays are built and arranged across the 30-acre Hodag Park both by organization members, local volunteers and business sponsors.

“New this year, we got 15 new lighted displays and 138 of them are 12 feet high,” he said.

An average display fabricated out of steel – “we’ve made displays out of PVC piping as well” – can cost upward of $1,000 to construct.

“We have, I want to say, pretty close to half a million dollars worth of equipment out there,” he said. “The walking path in itself, from start to finish, is about a mile long.”

Running “roughly four miles” of extension cords through the park, Freudenberg said the Lights of the Northwoods displays draw power from “seven different locations.”

“When you’re talking about this many lights in a park, you look at the park when it’s all lit up, and you’re just in awe,” he said.

For three weekends in December, Freudenberg said attendees can also visit Santa and purchase refreshments provided by GFWC Rhinelander Woman’s Club. 

Leading up to and throughout the season, Lights of the Northwoods showcases contributions from local businesses on its Facebook Page.

Some of the recent ones include Fraiser’s Heating, Cooling, Plumbing & Electric, Enterprise Wood Products, Argonne Lumber and the Wisconsin Public Service Foundation.

The ‘feeling of giving back’

In addition to community volunteers, Freudenberg said several local organizations – such as the Oneida County Humane Society, Wild Instincts animal rehabilitation and local Boy Scouts troops – also assist in hosting the event and receive monetary donations following the light show.

“We raise ‘X’ amount of dollars each year,” he said. “Part of that goes to our budget to maintain things, and then we distribute a certain amount.”

When he joined the organization eight years ago, Freudenberg said Lights of the Northwoods was a three-weekend event.

“They were only doing the weekends during the month of December [and] now we run the whole month,” he said.

In addition to the Christmas lights, Freudenberg said spectators can also enjoy a new year fireworks show during the event’s final weekend.

“Come Jan. 1, we have our fireworks display,” he said. “That starts at 7 at night, and goes for 15-20 minutes. That night, the park [usually has] not one empty parking spot.”

However, Freudenberg said the true highlight of Lights of the Northwoods isn’t just the displays, but the organization’s mission and the commitment of local and statewide businesses and volunteers working together to spread holiday cheer.

“It’s a feeling of giving back – having something for the community that’s there for people to go through who can’t afford to have a Christmas tree or Christmas lights in their house… and they don’t have to give anything,” he said. “They could just drive [or walk] through as much as they want.”

The Lights of the Northwoods runs from 5-9 p.m. nightly until Jan. 1.

Visit the organization’s aforementioned website for more details, including an updated map of the light display’s walking and driving paths.