The Xmas Light Show

I have built this website to showcase our Christmas lights.

The first Christmas in our house, we put up 2 strings of lights around the front door. The next year, I completely outlined the house with multi-colored lights, and it looked like "A gingerbread house" according to my neighbors. A couple of years later, I bought the "GE Lights and Sounds of Christmas" unit which had 6 channels and pre-programmed music and sequences. I had that for a couple of years and kept adding more and more lights. In 2008, I had so many lights on the house running through the unit that I was blowing fuses in it, and when all the lights would go on, the lights in the house would dim.
In 2009, I purchased a Light-O-Rama unit with 16 channels and it is computer controlled. The Light-O-Rama unit uses 2 different electrical circuits. I also switched to LED lights and ended the problem of the house lights dimming.
In 2010, we had 6 Light-O-Rama controllers, over 20,000 LED lights, a 15 foot tree, and a propane fire pit.
This year, we will have 9 Light-O-Rama controllers with 144 channels of animation as well as a 20 foot Mega Tree, 10 Mini trees, and the fire pit.
we are already planning for next years show!

We started doing this just as a little bit of decoration for our son. As our family grew, so did our display. As the display got bigger, we would see people slowing down to look at the house. Now, we see people bringing their family to look at the lights. Last year, I heard a bunch of noise outside, and as I peeked out the window, I saw a father standing outside his car as his son was standing on the drivers seat wathching the lights. He was so excited that he would yell "Did you see that?" to his dad. The smile on his face, and the joy in his voice is exactly why we do this.

In 2011, we will use: 9 Controllers with 144 channels, 2 LED Ribbons for 4 arches, 30,000 LED lights, 100 lbs of propane, 400 feet of wire cable, over 5000 feet of wire, and over 7000 zip ties.

How much does all this cost? The answer is, I don't know. I start getting things for the next year right after Christmas. I hit all the clearance sales, and I will buy things when I see them in the store throughout the year. I may buy a new controller in March, and lights in July. It all depends on who has what on sale when. As for my electric bill, in 2010, my bill for December was only 40.00 more than my bill for November. I use LED lights, and they are alot more efficient than regular lights.