6808 Buckhurst Court
Christmas Lights Show
M-Th 6pm to 10pm
Fr-Su 6pm to 11pm
Tune radio to 107.1 FM to hear the music. Speakers also play music for those walking by.
This page is all about my display which I call my Christmas Lights Show. From my static display over many years, I finally made the jump into Christmas light animation. I did a lot of research on the various techniques for doing a display and finally decided to go with the number one rated hardware, Light-O-Rama. They make it so easy yet it is very dependable and robust. You can find out more about the hardware and software on their website http://www.lightorama.com.
My display has really changed over the past few years. I started out with all traditional Christmas lights, known as incandescent lights, but now most of my lights are color-changing LED lights known as RBG pixel bulbs. These bulbs were very hard to program just a few years ago, but a new software program called xLights has made it very easy. I still have some traditional lights but eventually those will be no more. The software can also completely setup the pixel controllers so its not such a cumbersome task as it used to be.
It takes about 2 weeks to get everything setup and ready. It takes the rest of the year to plan, build, and sequence everything. I usually get started in July when many online places begin having Christmas sales. Then in August is the annual Christmas Lights convention put together by members of Christmas Carolina. A lot of time is spent at the computer watching the display animated on a picture of my house with little dots that represent lights in the display. It takes many hours to complete just one song. I run out of time every year trying to get new songs put together. I am getting better with using the software now though!
Often times I won't have everything how I want it until about the second weekend in December. So the two weeks prior and the week after Christmas are the best times to come back and see the display to see what has changed. Of course visit as often as you like!
The music is transmitted to car stereos using a low-power FM transmitter tuned to 107.1 FM.
Please join the Facebook page to leave a comment or say what you liked or not liked or just to say Merry Christmas!
Here are some pictures I took the night it snowed while the show was running: