FAQ

Why do you do it?

There are many reasons why I like to decorate for the holidays. As a child growing up in Niagara Falls, NY I can remember all the houses lit up for Christmas. When I became a home owner I started decorating my own house. After having children the display got a little bigger, they loved to look at the house lit up for Christmas. Computerized lighting came along in 2006 and it rekindled my enthusiasm for Christmas lights.

Now I like to think I am giving back to the community in some small way, after all Christmas is the time for giving and sharing. When you see the happy faces of adults and children looking at the lights and hear the appreciative comments, it makes all the hard work worth it.

How does it work?

Everything is done from a computer. I use specilty hareware and software designed for computerized lighting. There are 15 controller boxes, located in various spots within the display, each box has 16 circuits,. The computer sends commands to these boxes that turns the lights on, turns them off, makes them fade and twinkle. Special software is used to create a sequence. A sequence is a song that has all the instructions on when to turn a circuit on and off.

How much planning goes on?

Planning starts on December 26th for the following years display. That is when all the lights go on sale. For a christmas light enthusiast the favorate day of the year isn't December 25th, its December 26th. January all the lights are taken down and packed away. Febuary, March, and April is when I try and build anything new for the display. September through mid October is when I start working on the sequences I will be using for the display that year. Mid October is when we lose the garage for the next month or so. All the lights and display items are moved into the garage in preperation for putting them outside. The first weekend in November is when I start putting the lights outside. I try to have everything done by the weekend before Thanksgiving so I can do a test run and make sure everything works. The lights go live on the day after Thanksgiving.

How long does it take to put up the lights?

I takes me every weekend in November to get the lights up and tested by the day after Thanksgiving. Trust me you get a lot of strange looks when you are hanging lights that early but it take quite a bit of time to get the lights all done.

How do you power all this and what does it cost?

I have a 200 amp panel in the garage dedicated just to powering the lights. That made wiring everything a whole lot easier. The utility bill does go up quite a bit for the month of December but not as much as you would think because the lights are off as much as they are on. Last year the bill went up maybe $300.

How do you get the music to play on my car radio?

The computer plays a song that goes with the sequence. Where the speakers plug in to the computer there is another line going to an FM transmitter. The transmitter then sends the signal to your car radio on an unused frequency. This year I choose 96.9 FM.

Can I get a back stage tour?

Sure, but please try and let me know ahead of time so I can be prepared for it. Just use the "Contact" page on the web site and let me know you are interested in seeing the back stage portion of the display, we can set up a time that will be convienant for both of us.

Other facts and figures.

1: The entire display uses over 95,000 lights.

2: There are 240 computer controlled channels.

3: There is over 2 miles of extention cords used. There is almost 1,000 feet of network cable used to link up all the transmitters.

4: The house has over 16,000 lights on it.

5: The big tree uses almost 10,000 light's all by it self. To the top of the star it stands 28 feet tall.

6: When all the lights are on at full power it pulls 200 amps. That equals about 24,000 watts. This is as much electricty as used by 400 standard household lights.