West Point neighborhood once again treated to Christmas dinosaur light show

Published 8:30 am Tuesday, November 28, 2023

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When you drive down Francolyn Terrace in West Point this holiday season, you may be surprised by the Jurassic display. West Point residents Cody and Lucy Royster are the self-proclaimed World’s Largest Christmas Dinosaur Lightshow with 103 dinosaur inflatables.

The display begins from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET each night. The community is invited to come out to enjoy the light display, although the Roysters warn guests not to leave their car. 

The Christmas light show is in its third year now. The shows began during the height of COVID-19 in 2020. 

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Cody and Lucy, from Lanett, got their first inflatable dinosaur nine years ago when their first sons, twins Thatcher and Tomlin, were born. Over the years, the collection slowly grew adding with each new addition to the family. Next came Dalton and then Wayde. 

Though the couple has always collected holiday decorations, their sons’ love of dinosaurs encouraged them to keep adding to the new collection.

“We feel like it’s a good tradition that we can pass down,” Cody said.

However, in 2020, when the world seemed to shut down for the holidays, the family took to driving around the neighborhood with hot chocolate looking for Christmas displays. But nobody else had what the Roysters had — a brood of Christmas dinosaurs.

“Because nobody had really done dinosaurs,” Cody said. “And our boys loved dinosaurs.”

In 2021, they doubled their collection to 40 inflatables. By 2022, they had accumulated around 70 dinosaurs. 

There are now 103 individual inflatables on display at Francolyn Terrace.

“The really cool thing is out of 103 dinosaurs that we do have, they’re all unique except for two,” Cody said, meaning the two identical dinosaurs that represent the Royster twins. 

The decorations have begun to migrated over to the neighboring yards. Lucy’s parents Karen and Donnie Erwin-Brown, on the left, and Steven and Jessica Powers, on the right, have agreed to host some of the Roysters’ surplus dinosaurs. 

“We’re running out of space,” Cody said. 

The couple said it takes two whole days and a lot of helping hands to get the displays set up. Their youngest two sons, who are very fond of dinosaurs, are always excited to help out where they can. 

“They’re so ecstatic,” Cody said.

Last year, Cody said they tried to get registered with the Guinness Book of World Records. But ultimately, the couple said the goal of the light show is just to add some magic to the holiday season. 

“It’s a good sense of community, especially for young children,” Cody said. “And especially because it’s different.”

The community support has surprised Cody and Lucy. They said they received a lot of positive feedback. Families visit the street every year to see the display come up. 

“We’ve had so many people that we don’t even know just reach out to me like ‘my children love this,’” Cody said.

Lucy said some of their adult neighbors have even told them how much they enjoy seeing the unique light show. 

Cody said he tries to organize the displays in clever tableaus to entertain visitors. For example, one section, the ‘Sugar Corner,’ shows dinosaurs trying to eat gingerbread men. Other displays represent the Roysters’ family unit — the parents and four sons.