For a dozen years, from 1983 to 1995, the yard of Richard and Lois Burris along U.S. 54 sported a most unique Christmas decoration.
So unique, Richard estimates, that “there’s really nothing like it in the country.”
The decoration is a 3-foot birthday cake with equally tall rotating candles that spell out “Happy Birthday Jesus!” on one side and “Season’s Greetings” on the other.
Burris made the contraption from an oil tank — naturally — that had been damaged by a lightning strike.
But in 1996, Burris and wife Lois were ready for a change. A major landscaping project meant they might not have room for the giant cake, so they sat it in their backyard, and didn’t even try to pull it out of storage the next year.
And so it sat, largely unnoticed, minus the time the city of Iola borrowed it for Iola’s sesquicentennial parade in 2009.
Fast forward to September 2017.
Aaron Burris, Richard’s oldest grandson, announced he was ready to see the cake put back on display.
“You have to remember, Aaron was 11 the first time we put it out,” Lois said. “He and his friends would come by to see it, and they all remembered it from their childhood.”
Within a couple of weeks, Aaron — who lives in Topeka — was at his grandparent’s home, ready to work.
The elements had been hard on the giant cake, but not too much so.
Three of the candles had cracked from water saturation. The electric power source for the motor had become corroded, so it was replaced.
But other than that, Aaron had the cake back up and going within a few days.
“He was the instigator,” Richard said. “I just let him go.”
The cake was unveiled Saturday morning, coinciding with the Burris family’s annual Christmas gathering, drawing relatives from as far away as Palm Beach, Fla.
“We always have our family Christmas this weekend,” explained Marsha Burris, Richard and Lois’ daughter. Saturday’s gathering drew 29 of the 34 Burris descendants.
In a nod to family tradition, several grandchildren recreated a photo they’d posed for 26 years prior, including a little red wagon in front of the giant cake.
