Why Hilton Head’s Dove Street is sparkling with Christmas lights after a 10-year break
The Dove Street Lights Festival is back on Hilton Head Island after a decade-long break, and it seems as though the most common response is “Wow!” then “Why?”
“Pretty much everybody that comes through asks that question, ‘Why did you stop and why did you start again?’ said Kristi Beckler.
She and her husband, Paul Beckler, along with their neighbors, friends and family members, staged the Christmas light show on the island’s south end for 20 years before deciding to call it quits in 2010. The end of the attraction was so widely mourned that it got a mention in USA Today at the time.
“It is a gigantic amount of work,” Kristi Beckler said. “We were just kind of tired. ... We decided to go out on top. A lot of people thought the town made us stop, but nothing could be further from the truth.”
At its peak, the event was attracting around 1,000 vehicles a night driving through the alley of lights hung on the canopy of giant branches above Dove Street.
The Beckers had hoped to set up the lights last Christmas to mark the attraction’s 30th anniversary, but they decided to wait until this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We like to think of it as the lights at the end of the tunnel,” Kristi Beckler said.
‘Duke of Dove’
Paul Beckler presides over the festivities nightly from 5:30 to 11 p.m. as the “Duke of Dove” wearing a Cat in the Hat top hat and reciting a Seuss-inspired poem to visitors.
“Now as you drive by, look up in the tree
A beautiful dove, many stars you will see
A star for each year, it’s a wonderful show
We’re glad you came by, and we want you to know.”
Among the swagged lights, glowing orbs and other displays, visitors will find a 6-foot-tall nutcracker whose large box was turned by Kristi into a red Santa phone booth. A large bear topiary was rescued from the recycling center, cleaned and set up in a sleigh. And, since there isn’t real snow at the beach, there’s a bubble machine to add even more sensory fun.
It took a week for about a dozen people to set it up, and the Becklers’ family will be in town for New Year’s to help take everything down. The lights are hung with telescoping rods that reach high into the branches over the street.
“You can do just about anything you want as long as you take it one step at a time,” said Paul Beckler, who also runs a computer software company.
Visitors planning to drive through the display should note that Dove Street is one way. Drivers on North Forest Beach Drive should take Curlew Road to Dune Lane, then turn left onto Dove Street to find the entrance.
Giving back
This year’s Dove Street Festival of Lights is benefiting the Island Recreation Center and the Deep Well Project, but donations are not being collected at the event.
Instead, visitors are asked to go online to make a donation to one of the charities via https://culturehhi.org/portfolio/dove-street-holiday-lights. Postcards handed out at the event have a QR code to help direct folks to the donation website.
“All we’re paid with is smiles,” Paul Becker said.
Hilton Head Island Recreation Association executive director Frank Soule remembers taking his children to see the Dove Street lights.
“When my kids were younger, that was one our first stops,” he said.
The money raised for the Rec Center at this year’s event will go into a scholarship fund for summer camp and after-school programs.
“The dollars that are raised are going to literally help hundreds of children,” Soule said.
Sandy Gillis, executive director of Deep Well, said previous Dove Street festivals were one of the nonprofit’s biggest fundraisers each year, and she remembers her children’s excitement to see the lights.
“It wasn’t Christmas until the Dove Street lights went up,” she said.
Gillis said she’s interested to see how merging a nostalgic event with updated technology like online donations works out.
“We have no idea how that’s going to go, but we are excited that the Dove Street organizers picked us to be beneficiaries,” she said. “Even if it’s not a huge fundraiser for us, we are just excited for the exposure.”
Many new residents of Hilton Head aren’t aware of Deep Well’s work providing needy families with food, clothing and household items, and helping with medical and emergency housing needs. Around 700 families will have new toys for their children this Christmas because of the charity’s efforts.
“Just giving back,” said Paul Beckler. “That’s what the whole festival is about, and maybe people will be inspired and pay it forward.”
What’s next?
One big question remains for the community and the neighborhood. Will the Dove Street Festival of Lights again become an annual event or is this the last hoorah?
The answer lies in the public’s response to the benefiting charities.
“We are going to see how the donations go,” said Paul Beckler. “If we see there’s a big surge in donations, we are definitely going to be on board.”
