One of the most frequently asked questions that we hear is, "Why
do you do the light display?" So, I thought we should address that question.
As a child growing up in small town, Indiana, as far back as my mind
allows me to recall, I would decorate our house with strings of lights
with an enthusiasm beyond reason. From the age of 12 years old I would
annually anticipate, with great excitement, the day our stores would
put their Christmas lights on the shelves so that I could use the allowance
that I had saved to rush out and get that all important symbol of the
Christmas season, strands on mini lights. I would then rush home and
combine my newly found treasure with those from the previous season
and climb to the peak of our roof to begin accessorizing the house with
strings of lights that were every bit as precious to me as a string
of pearls. After the eaves were laces, the windows outlined and the
bushes and trees wrapped I would host a small family lighting ceremony
and stand in awe at what I saw as marvel of great creativity. This to
me was the epitome of Christmas light displays until I happened upon
a house in my small town that had some how not only managed to cover
the entire house and yard with lights but also set the lights to somehow
dance to music. Wow, how was this possible? I contacted him in 1987
to ask how this was possible as I could only picture what I could do
to with my house if the lights could dance in time with Christmas music.
To my great disappointment the owner of the magical Christmas house
told me it would be too expensive for me to do and it was industrial
computer software not available to me. So for the following years I
would continue to decorate as I had before.
My enthusiasm began to fade until the winter of 2006 when I saw what
was the most amazing and unbelievable commercials I had ever seen. The
commercial was a beer commercial featuring a house decorated with tons
of lights all synchronized to some Christmas rock music. Man, talk about
excitement, I could hardly sleep at night knowing that what I had dreamt
about some 20 years ago was now in a beer commercial. I began researching
the origin of the commercial Christmas display and very quickly found
that there was now computer software and controls that could be purchased
for personal use. And I could now afford it. In fall 2006 I purchased
a starter package and began learning how to synchronize lights to music.
As I had done when I was a child, I enthusiastically rushed out and
purchased Christmas lights, probably not looking any less excited than
I did as a 12 year old. With the support of my family I created my first
computerized animated Christmas light display in 2006. Again, as I did
as a child I had a small lighting ceremony but this time it was with
my fiancé and daughter. It soon began to be very exciting as we started
to see cars stopping by the house to watch our creation. Was this starting
to be what I had so dreamt of 20 years ago?
Over the following years we have added to our display in both the capacity
the computer can control and the number of lights. In 2008 we had just
over 15,000 lights and 96 channels of computer controls. We anticipate
the 2009 display to have over 30,000 lights. I still enjoy designing
and setting up the display as I did when I was a child. The only difference
is that we now do it on a much larger scale and spend much more time
preparing. The excitement with anticipating what each years display
will look like still persists along with those nights of little sleep
due to the thoughts of how it can be made better.
With all of this, I still get the greatest feeling of excitement from
knowing that our display brings so much Christmas cheer to those that
stop by to see it. We receive numerous cards and tokens of appreciation
every Christmas from those in the community just wanting to acknowledge
and say thank you for putting our time into creating a display that
is unique and enjoyable for them to see. Nothing makes all the time
and work worth it like knowing that it has such an impact on so many
peoples Christmas cheers. My reality has picked up where my dreams ended.