Some guy named Osborne in Arkansas started decorating his house with Christmas lights. It got bigger and bigger until the neighbors started to complain about the traffic and crowds. It ended up in court and he was forced to take it down. Then Disney, capitalizing on the press attention, bought the whole thing and installed it in a piece of the park. Since then it moved around the park a few times and got bigger. Now they're going all in on the Star Wars world (which they're doing in reaction to the success of the Harry Potter world at Universal Orlando) and they need the space where this was.