TOWN OF TRENTON – If you’re driving along US Highway 63 between Ellsworth and Red Wing, you’ll be sure to see the outline of Svea Lutheran Church’s Christmas lights twinkling in the night. The Christmas lights have been a symbol of the holiday season and a beacon of hope for 85 years.

According to Pastor Al Aakre and church member Jerry Hasenberg, in 1938 or 1939, member Sid Peterson served on the Pierce Pepin Electric Board when rural electrification came through. The members decided they wanted to light up the church during the Advent season. Old photos show men clinging like monkeys to the church’s steep roof and spire, stringing the twinkling lights. While the process has changed, the message remains the same: Hope and anticipation for the coming of Jesus’ birth.

Hasenberg, who is a retired truck driver, wanted to find a way to install LED lights permanently along the outline of the church, to save people from the dangerous job of putting up and taking down the lights each year.

“WE tried to find some LED lights to replace all the incandescent bulbs that we could permanently mount the church,” Hasenberg said. “But we couldn’t find any.”

He figured that is semi lights can last on a truck through 100 mph winds, all sorts of weather and thousands of miles, surely they could light up the little church. They ordered more than 100 lights from a company in Tennessee, mounted them on boards and permanently affixed them to the church’s outline, which is the same as when the church started the tradition decades ago, Aakre noted. They run on a 12-volt battery.

“We used to have 25 watt incandescent bulbs, using around 2,600 watts of electricity,” Hasenberg said. “Now we use less than 150 watts. These lights are running 1.25 watts to 8/10 each.”

Pierce Pepin donated the original lights and bulbs all those years ago, Aakre said.

“When the REA came through, they thought they would be a promotion in convincing people to hook up to the electric grid,” Aakre said.

The lights have been turned on continuously each year except for a period during World War II when conserving electricity was important and blackouts took place.

“When Covid started, we turned the lights on for two years straight,” Hasenberg said. “As kind of a beacon of hope. We all thought it was a way to let people see a church lit up all the time.”

Hasenberg remembers that putting the lights up used to be monumental task. They were mounted on a cable and strung up by pulleys in the steeple.

“We would pull them across the top of the church and hook them all up,” Hasenberg said. “It was a big job every fall and spring. When we had the steeple reshingled, we had pulleys installed on top to lower cables to the ground, then we’d pull them with bolt winches.”

He marveled at the handiwork put into the church’s building, which is rough sawn wood. The sanctuary dates back to 1877; the steeple was added in 1890 and the addition I the 1950s. The congregation first began meeting in 1875. 

When the church first looked into the permanent lighting project, the first bid came in at $18,000. Member Dennis Rieck was able to get it down to a little over $11,000. A large donation came from Marlin and Janice Torseth’s family; Janice served as the church organist for 45 years and her father was part of the crew who first strung the lights.

“When her husband died, a lot of the money came from Janice and Marlin Torseth, as a memorial to Marlin,” Hasenberg said. “After we got the lights working, she would sit over there (where she lived at the Svea store) and look at the lights at night. That just tickled her.”

Aakre, who graduated from seminary in September 2022 and was called to serve at Svea as a fill-in in October 2022, said the lights are important to people because they span many generations and eras: the Depression, World War II, the Korean and Vietnam War eras, to present day. He enjoys seeing people drive past in the evenings and “do the loop” on 770^th Street.

“Up until 1940, services were still held in Swedish,” Aakre said.

Svea Lutheran, which yolked to Eidsvold Lutheran in Esdaile in June, has 80 confirmed and active members. With a Swedish heritage, the church welcomes people from all different cultures.

“The lights span another era for this congregation,” Aakre said. “We have a new sister church and the lights continue to shine.”

He joked that Svea being Swedish and Eidsvold being Norwegian prevented them from joining together for many years. It took decades, but they finally did it. He serves both congregations.

Hasenberg, who has been a member for 50 years, said the lights illuminate on Thanksgiving and they’re shut off after New Year’s.

“As little as it costs to run them now, maybe we should light them longer,” he mused. “People sure like it anyway. We get a lot of comments.”

Aakre hopes the lights share a message of hope while Christians wait for their one true Hope to enter into the world. He’s proud of “the little church with Christmas lights” and its role in spreading the message.

“I’m so tickled that the permanent mounting lights worked out so well,” Hasenberg said.

Svea Lutheran, located at N2610 770^th St., Hager City, invites the public to join them for Advent services and a meal each Wednesday until Christmas. The meal is served at 6 p.m., followed by Vespers at 7 p.m.