Looking for holiday lights? This Southern town has the wackiest, tackiest and ‘best.’

It was Birmingham’s hottest holiday party — well, at least in certain circles. It was held not at an upscale country club, but upstairs at the Avondale Brewing Company. There was no champagne in crystal flutes, just beer in plastic cups. No pate de fois gras or little shrimp puffs, just brisket and pulled pork from Dreamland Barbecue.

The oh-so-soignee party guests — beer cups in hand — greeted each other with holiday cheer. A serape and sombrero clad couple, Feliz and Navidad, exchanged greetings with an overgrown elf, whose beard was threaded with holiday ornaments and whose sweatshirt featured a head of the POTUS in a Santa cap which read “Make Xmas Great Again.”

Those who hadn’t gone the full-on costume route had added festive touches such as necklaces made of oversized twinkling Christmas lights or reindeer antler headwear. Some had even raided their closets for that holiday staple — the ugly Christmas sweater. All were fortifying themselves for what lay ahead.

It could only mean one thing ... it was once again time for the city’s Wacky, Tacky Christmas Lights Tour. I got in on the fun at last year’s event founded by my friend Verna Gates, a former CNN producer and Reuters correspondent, and self-proclaimed lover of “all things tacky.”

She got the idea from her yearly drive with friends in search of the city’s glitziest light displays. If they also happened to fit Verna’s definition of tacky, so much the better. Afterward, they would retire to her house for an appropriately tacky holiday feast of beanie wienies, Sloppy Joes and Ritz crackers with Cheese Whiz.

After a particularly riotous event, one of her friends suggested she open it to the public and make it a fundraiser for Fresh Air Family, the non-profit she runs which provides week-long camps and other outdoor experiences for inner city children.

Verna says her first thought was, “Who would want to do this?” Her second was “apparently there is no accounting for taste. We see a lot of proudly tacky people,” she says.

She first opened the tour to the public in 2012 using a 40-passenger school bus that made two runs. This year’s event had a convoy of 42 vehicles, ranging from touring buses to limousines for groups who wanted to do their gushing in style. Alas, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, which provided assistance for the Wacky Wanderers, had to settle for motorcycles.

Sandwiched in between the event’s inauspicious beginning and its current dazzling success has come national recognition. USA Today named it one of the 10 Best Holiday Events across the country, stating that “if you enjoy a holiday light display a la Clark Griswald this is the event for you.”

All of this has resulted in an influx of Wacky Tacky types eager to see what all the fuss is about. There was the Birmingham City Councilman, who, if he arrived with trepidation, left with a new appreciation of his district’s creativity. There were the Magic City Boppers, who are into 50s doo-wop and nostalgia, and the Boomers group from a local Methodist church, who even after signing up 85 participants still had a waiting list.

But Gates’ personal favorite was the group of ladies in their eighties who were alums of the same sorority. As some were on walkers and canes, they were not able to navigate up the stairs to the party room. Undaunted, they retreated to the brewery tasting room and uncorked their own bottles of wine, where their revelry led to them being kicked out of the bar.

Far from being horrified, Gates says, “They were so proud of themselves. They wrote up their adventures for their sorority alumna magazine and won social event of the year.”

The tour is open to all (last year’s event brought not only me, but enthusiasts from Florida, Georgia and Tennessee as well.) And just what did we see? We saw the Hanukkah House with its ‘Oy to the World’ display in lights and a fiddler, instead of Santa, on the roof. We saw Santa’s Trailer Park where an inflatable grandma actually got run over by a reindeer, and an inflatable Santa mooned us.

When asked if the nickname offended him, homeowner Casey Dunn replied, “We gave up being classy a long time ago.”

A neighbor was so inspired by Dunn’s display that he put up his own, with Chewbacca, R2D2 and other inflatable, animatronic Star Wars characters welcoming the holidays to a galaxy far, far away.

If there’s anything wackier than the Alabama-Auburn football rivalry, it might be the Auburn House (guess which team they’re for?) which immortalized the annual slugfest in lights.

All total, there were 14 houses on last year’s tour, a few of them narrowly missing a PG-13 rating. So, just how do homeowners make the cut?

“I have really low standards,” Gates laughs, “and they are hard to meet. One homeowner lobbied for three years to be on the route, coming to committee meetings to plead his case.

“When he put up a Santa relieving himself on the roof, I decided he had earned his spot,” she says.

If homeowners begin auditioning several years in advance for this anti-Norman Rockwell Christmas experience, those who want a spot on a bus must get in their requests early as well.

“People start calling in August to reserve buses,” says Gates.

While the annual Wacky Tacky Lights Tour is fun for both homeowners and those enjoying the fruits of their labor, the real beneficiaries are the children of Fresh Air Family. In the six years since the tour has been open to the public, Gates says they have raised $271,000 to endow scholarships for kids to attend camps across Alabama.

“Thanks to our sponsors – the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Alabama, Avondale Brewing Company, Bud’s Best Cookies, EBSCO (a Birmingham-based magazine subscription company), and the Aloft and Elyton Hotels, children who would never be able to attend a summer camp are able to come free of charge,” says Gates.

And there’s nothing wacky or tacky about that.

If you go

Wacky Tacky Lights Christmas Tour

2019 tour dates: December 10, 11, 12

Cost: $33, includes reservations aboard one of the guided tour buses, a pre-tour party and a snack stop at Aloft Hotel.

Where to stay: The Elyton Hotel, 1928 1st Ave N; www.marriott.com. A member of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, the Elyton is host hotel for the Wacky Tacky tour. Package includes overnight accommodations and a $25 credit to be used in any of the Elyton’s food outlets.

FYI: For details on the 2019 event, go to wackytacky.org