The Tacky Light Run Goes Where Walton Park's Lights Spread

"Then we plan to trade off every other year which way the course goes." That's how Sports Backers' Nan Callahan described the 2024 CarMax Tacky Light Run to WTVR. That year the 6K skipped Dawnridge Court and went down Coralview instead, "to give it some love and to see a whole other aspect of the neighborhood." Most races lay out a course and leave it alone. This one moves its route around inside a single Midlothian subdivision, depending on where the decorating has spread.

The run comes back on Saturday, December 12, 2026, staged once again from Mid-Lothian Mines Park. Counting from its 2013 debut, this will be the 14th year Walton Park has hosted it. The event has always depended on the neighbors who string the lights.

A subdivision picked for its decorators

When Sports Backers started the run in 2013, it went looking for a subdivision with enough decorating households to carry a 6K. Richmond magazine reported at the time that the organizers settled on Walton Park because of the holiday spirit and enthusiasm its residents had already shown. WTVR covered that first run as a 6K through the neighborhood, and Richmond magazine's preview put the start and finish beside Mid-Lothian Mines Park.

The same Richmond magazine piece pointed to Dawnridge Court as the clearest example. Every neighbor on the cul-de-sac took part, with lights strung overhead to make an arch, and the organizers hoped runners coming through would get more homes to decorate. From its first year, the run was expected to grow the decorating it came to see.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Tacky Lights page for Dawnridge lists it as "Christmas Court." They describe a whole cul-de-sac that has decorated for more than a decade, with inflatables, figures, mixed lights and strands running across the street. The paper also lists a display on Coralview Terrace called "Christmas on Coralview," with lights synchronized to music, along with firepits, dancing and neighbors gathered around it.

WTVR's 2024 report tied the two streets together directly. Coralview, it said, had been inspired by Christmas Court. One cul-de-sac's habit caught on with the next street over, and the course moved to take it in.

The rotation, and what's still unannounced for 2026

Callahan said in 2024 that the course would alternate between Dawnridge and Coralview from then on. Sports Backers hasn't published which way the 2026 route turns. The course map currently on its site is labeled 2025, and the overview only says the 6K runs through Walton Park, starting and finishing on Woolridge Road next to the park.

Whichever way the route turns, the neighborhood is part of the contest. The 2026 FAQ describes a neighborhood superlative contest for Walton Park's holiday displays and the parties set up along the course. In other words, the house parties along the course count toward the competition.

Neighbors who live off the main loop should keep an eye on the course page for this year's road closures. The closure sheet linked there now is from an earlier year. It showed Woolridge Road restrictions beginning in the morning and lasting until 11 p.m., with Walton Park Road closed in the early evening. Use it as a sense of scale, not as this year's schedule.

How a 1987 house tour ended up on foot in Chesterfield

Walton Park's displays belong to a tradition that started in the city, run out of an office on West Clay Street. Richmond magazine traces the tradition back to 1987 and a contest with a very long name, Richmond's Tacky Xmas Decoration Contest and Grand Highly Illuminated House Tour. The Richmond News Leader wrote about it on December 9 that year.

The contest was the idea of Barry Gottlieb, a local entrepreneur who also managed the Richmond Rock Line with promoter Chuck Wrenn. It was a phone line people called for concert dates and venues. Gottlieb brought the tour back with WVGO-FM sponsorship from 1992 to 1995. After that, the Richmond Times-Dispatch kept it going. The paper says it has put together its annual Tacky Lights List for more than 35 years and requires at least 40,000 lights to get on it.

The tradition grew up as a scavenger hunt for houses scattered across the region, done by car. The run turned it into one evening in one neighborhood, on foot, with thousands of people moving through together. That only works somewhere with a lot of decorated homes packed close together, and that's why Sports Backers needed a place like Walton Park.

The park at the start line has a longer story than the race

Most runners treat Mid-Lothian Mines Park as the place they pick up a bib and warm up. The ground has a much longer history. Virginia Energy dates commercial coal mining in Chesterfield County to 1730 and calls Midlothian the site of early commercial coal mining in North America.

The foundation's historic overview says the 1882 explosion killed 32 men and closed the last large-scale operation. Virginia Energy notes that smaller companies kept mining coal at Midlothian until the 1930s.

The Mid-Lothian Mines & Rail Roads Foundation works to preserve, reconstruct and interpret the area's coal-mining and railroad sites, starting with this county-owned park, and recruits volunteers through its committees. For one Saturday a year, a site with nearly two centuries of coal history becomes what Sports Backers calls the North Pole.

Callahan told WTVR the park is where people gather before the run, enter the costume contest and look at the decorations, and it's also where everyone finishes, "so it's a great place to get that party going after the event."

Planning December 12

Here's the official 2026 schedule from Sports Backers:

Getting there. The free Polar Express shuttle leaves from Brightpoint Community College Lots A, B and D at 800 Charter Colony Parkway. Drive in through the Greenway Crossing Drive entrance off Charter Colony. The shuttle runs continuously from 4 to 9 p.m., with limited service starting at 2:15 p.m. for kids' run families, and it can take strollers. Sports Backers recommends getting on by 5:30 p.m. if you want to make the 6 p.m. start.

Parking elsewhere. Other parking is first come, first served. Sports Backers asks people not to park across Midlothian Turnpike, because there's no official crosswalk.

Cost. Registration goes up as the date gets closer.

1. Through November 22: $45 adult, $35 youth, $20 kids' mile
2. November 23 to December 6: $50 adult, $40 youth, $25 kids' mile
3. December 7 to December 12: $55 adult, $45 youth, $25 kids' mile

Every participant gets entry to the North Pole, a knit beanie or event shirt, an ornament finisher medal, a commemorative bib and Wegmans candy cane treats. The start and finish go through what Sports Backers calls its light tunnel. The official advice for what to wear is your ugliest sweater and your brightest gear.

If you live in Walton Park, the date gives you a deadline. Displays and front-yard parties along the course are eligible for the neighborhood superlative, and the route has moved before to reach the next street that joined in.

At Kelly Blanchard Real Estate, we love it when a neighborhood's own traditions end up shaping a citywide event, and Walton Park's front yards have been doing that every December since 2013. If you're a Midlothian homeowner wondering how your street's character shows up in your home's value, we're happy to talk it through over a free home valuation, with no pressure and no rush before the holidays.