2018 marks 10 years of our little Christmas light show. What do we have in store? More LED’s that’s for sure. I’m not 100% convinced on a final design, but I am planning several new additions. Thank you everyone who came out in 2017 to show your support and love of the season. Thank you for being respectful to our neighbors. You’ll definitly enjoy 2018 because another neighbor has caught the bug. You’ll be able to enjoy 2 shows 1 street apart. If you have any song suggestions or show suggestions please reach out to us.

I’m sorry I’ve been long in writing this. This year has thrown us a few curve balls for sure. First, thank you for coming back and continuing to support our show. We love getting letters and emails about the show. I didn’t realize how (in-)famous we are around here until a recent cub scout camp out when most people (who I’d never met) knew me by light show. It feels good to do something fun and great for the kids and community. On with the show:

Show Times: December

Monday – Thursday: 5pm – 9pm

Friday – Sunday: 5pm – 10pm

We also have a few important things I’d like to mention to those who will take the time to read this site. Please cherish and spend time with those you love. Remember the real reason for the holiday and what all that means. Take the time to talk with your family about it. GIVE something to a stranger this year. This can be an invitation to lunch, a present, money, friendship, or an invitation to church.

Finally, I have some friends who have caught the “bug” so to speak. I have 2 neighbors in this development who are also running light shows this year. The Fay family across the street at 7662 Natalie Commons, and the Bargar family at 7829 East Berkley Rd. Stop by their shows and let them know how awesome they did. It’s both of their 1st year, and they’re doing great!
If you’re looking to drive around and see other shows, here are some more of my friends running shows.

Bargar Family Lights
7829 East Berkley Rd. Denver, NC 28037

Fay Family Lights
7662 Natalie Commons Dr. Denver, NC 28037

Raz and Dawn Razmussen
315 Ramano Dr Denver, NC 28080
https://www.facebook.com/razlights/

Garden Oak Holiday Lights
4026 Garden Oak Drive, Indian Trail, NC 28079
www.GoHolidayLights.com

Five Alarm Lights
1001 Rosewater Lane, Indian trail, NC 28079

Fountainbrook Fallatts
1028 Fountainbrook Drive, Indian Trail, NC 28079
www.facebook.com/FountainbrookFallatts/

Fallatt’s Charlotte Christmas
3801 Maple Forest Ct. Charlotte, NC 28270
www.facebook.com/FallattsCharlotteChristmas

A Sweitzers Christmas
1001 Sunnyview Circle Matthews NC 28105

Zimnowski Light Show
15419 Hugh McAuley Road, Huntersville, NC 28078
www.facebook.com/ZimnowskiLightShow

Ho Ho Ho! Lets kickoff the 2016 season with a bang! Our best response last year came from our mashup, so we went ahead and did another for this year. There have been lots of behind the scene changes for this year that have slowed everything down. We are moving away from our old “Light O Rama” based hardware in favor of more DMX based products. We have also completely switched software suites to program the lights. This has presented a large learning curve but our hope is that it will give us a better more versatile product in the end. Please leave us a comment or email us at simcole (a-t) yahoo.com Merry Christmas!

The current song rotation (Which will change):

1. 2016 Mashup
2. Pentatonix – Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
3. Trans Siberian Orchestra – Queen of the Winter Night
4. Bob Rivers – Decorations
5. Christmas Vacation Theme Song
6. Thurl Ravencroft – The Grinch
7. EleventySeven – O Come All Ye Faithful
8. DaRude – Sandstorm
9. 2015 Mashup

The Show will run Monday – Thursday: 5pm – 9pm
Friday – Sunday: 5pm – 10pm

Hello everyone. It’s been another great season, but today we shutdown the show for 2014. I really enjoyed the new elements we added to the show and next year we plan on adding more color effects. We managed to raise $81.00 this year for Toys for Tots! I also published the new video’s on our video page. I want to thank everyone for coming out to see the lights, and a special thanks to my neighbors for putting up with the traffic and lights. Happy New Year everyone!

Some of you like to learn more about what goes into running a Christmas show. This year (so far) we have a limited amount of songs up. This fact is mostly due to the design changes we implemented this year to incorporate “Smart Pixels”. As you watch our show, you’ll notice the columns and the two arches are extremely bright and change colors. These smart pixels allow me to change individual bulb color. With that ability comes a new controller and a whole new way to program the lights. It took me late into the fall to finally get all the parts from China and test everything. The design had to change a few times because my Arches were initially too big to support their own weight. I had to trim them down from 16′ to 10′ so they would stand up. I had to redo the programming I had already done.

Next the software option for programming smart pixels is limited. There are pro’s and con’s to whatever software you pick (including exorbant prices), and my pick crashed whenever I tried to add all my pixels. You’d think it’s not hard to add 320 lights to a software program, BUT since each light can display invidual spectrum of Red/Green/Blue on each bulb it’s really not 320 light. It’s 960 lights or “channels”. For reference, 2013’s show only had 36 Channels. This year it’s 996 Channels. A lot of the tricks to get the show to look right have to be imported and exported across multiple pieces of software. This was all a learning process this year. I should have started the new project in June to be ready, but I didn’t get started until late August.

Now, I have to make all the old songs conform to the new channel layout. I have so busy at work lately, my free time is sparse. I’m working every night to get several of the other songs back up as well as a completely new song for this year. With that check back weekly for new information.

I really hope you enjoy the show. Please tell your friends to come visit as well. Remember, we’re donating to “Toys for Tots” again this year, so we appreciate anything you feel you can give. Leave us a note in our mailbox and tell us what you like about the show.

Merry Christmas!

Thanks to everyone for coming out this year and seeing the lights! A special Thank You to the people who donated to “Toys for Tots”. I tallied everything up and mailed a check today. The grand total was $140.97!!! What an awesome job. We also had 1 peso and a Canadian .10 piece which couldn’t be converted. I appreciate everyone’s time and effort, and please look forward to some big changes next year.

Hello everyone!

A big thank you to everyone who came out and saw Santa last night. He really enjoyed it and we look forward to doing that again next year. I’d like to remind everyone that our show will run until Jan 1st, so if you haven’t come by yet, please do so soon.

We have tallied up the donations so far, and we’re at $102.xx and some jingle change I haven’t counted yet. I thank everyone for their generosity. I will update the page again soon before Jan 1.

Ho Ho Ho.