I had been putting up a standard “static” Christmas light display using store bought LED lights for several years from 2008-2013. The lights did not twinkle or flash, except for two strands of Light Show – White Shooting Star Icicle LED string lights which we thought made our display look fancy. Little did we know how much farther the display would go.
10 years old (as of 2020)
Living in the frozen trundra of the North (aka Minne-snow-ta) you don’t often see your neighbors much until spring/summer. I remember running into Lynne, a neighbor from down the street, who told me her daughter Christina often asks, “Can we walk down to Mister Creed’s house to see the Christmas lights?” I was touched to hear that my lights were so loved by at least one 3-year old child.
While I had thought of improving the lights, it seemed too costly and time consuming to take on, but I couldn’t shake the thought of how excited Christina and perhaps others would be if I had an animated light show. So I did my research and bought my first light controllers, software, FM transmitter, a “Tune To 87.9” coro sign, and built 8 mini-tree’s. Later that summer I saw Lynne again and told her the 2014 Christmas lights were going to get a major upgrade so she must bring Christina by this winter.
The 2014 light show was a huge success! I remember, Brent, a neighbor in the cul-de-sac across the street telling me his kids counted as many as ten cars watching the show simultaneously at times. For our small street that’s a lot of traffic! I added more songs to the show in 2015 and 2016.
Life events prevented putting up a display in 2017 & 2018, but 2019 saw the return of Mr. Creed’s Light show. I noticed even more neighbors had decorated their homes with lots of lights especially the cul-de-sac across the street. In 2019 our neighborhood ended up on the local Mom blog’s Holiday Lights Tour which was a blast and added a lot more traffic to our neighborhood. This further inspired me to enhance the show again for 2020.
In a year where nothing seemed to go the way anyone wanted the upgrade to pixel lights seemed like one way to end the year on a bright note. Outlining the entire house in pixel strips is a huge project, but the results are worthwhile the display is soooo much brighter and I can make each pixel (4″) of the strips any of 16 millions hues of light via computer software! After the initial build the lights can be put up and taken down quickly and safely see the Pixel House Outline page for more info.
Thanks to Christina, Lynne, & Brent (my partner in lighting the world) for all the support and inspiration. Also thanks to my light show stalker, the Lydia Circle cul-de-sac lover of lights Stacy who waves when driving by … I know she watches closely anytime I’m working on the light show! 🙂
And it goes without saying, thanks to my next door neighbors Jim & Laura and Tom & Dawn for putting up with me walking on the roof all hours of the day and sometimes night! Of course its dark by 5PM in the winter up here! LOL
Big THANKS to the neighbors of Hunters Pass Estates for allowing for the extra traffic in our ordinarily quiet neighborhood.
Saving the best for last, thanks to my wife Angela who is quoted as having said, “You’re going to do what?!?!” when I first told her I’m going to build a Christmas Light Show…. Now I’m in trouble because she saw how much people enjoy the lights and she expects, or rather demands, a new element be added to the display every year. Thanks Angela for the support, that’s one honey-do list item I don’t mind!