Frequently asked questions:

Where did you buy that stuff?  (We get asked this question more than any other!)

Almost every item in our display is hand made using basic building materials and "smart" LED lights or commercial grade LED Christmas light strings. A couple of the smaller items are store bought and we modified them with "smart" LED lights. Click here to see how the new geometric wreath was made.

What makes that work?  

The LED lights are connected to controllers that receive commands from a computer. The computer plays the songs and sends commands to the controllers that operate the lights. Some of the controllers operate entire strings of lights while others operate each individual LED in a string separately. There are more than 10,000 channels of controlled lights.

How many lights are there?  

This year, we have nearly 13,000 lights, a large video screen, and two smaller video monitors.

How much is your electric bill?  

Since most of the lights are LED, the change to our electric bill is minimal.

How long does it take to set that up?  

Every year, we add something new and the setup time gets longer. Setup begins right after Halloween. This year, it will take about 6-7 full days to set up and test the display. However, most of the year is spent building display items, programming and testing. This is an all-year hobby.

How much time is spent programming?  

Programming the lights is by far the most time consuming part. Most of the summer is spent programming. A typical three minute song will take many hours to program. The month of October is spent testing the programs and schedules.