Anyone have handiwork to show off or have someone in their neighborhood that does it Griswold style?


Our kid's babysitter's husband is a handyman by trade and does his entire house up every Christmas for their two kids, thought I'd share the vid that one of their neighbors took

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvLqZyxUZW8&feature=share

12/17/2011 10:58:28 PM

This is a neighbor of mine. He does this every year, and actually sets it up so you can drive around the back of his house (he has a lot of other lights set up in his back yard that are more animated). His wife dresses up as an elf and collects donations for Hospice as you exit. If you are in the giving spirit and in the Triad area, or if you will be passing through before New Years, let me know and I will give you their address. It isn't a spectacular light show, but it goes to a great cause and I like to support him and his family. He has been through a lot.



[Edited on December 17, 2011 at 11:18 PM. Reason : a]

12/17/2011 11:12:52 PM

My House. I think the most unusual thing I do is hang lights in a 30ft tall Bradford pear tree. Rarely do you see anyone else get lights this high.

12/18/2011 7:47:54 AM

My Dad does some AMAZING lights, but I'm not at home yet. Once I get there I'll see what I can do.

12/18/2011 9:05:26 AM

Corner of Kilarney and Cunningham near the Trader Joe's in Cary. They have the lights set to several songs. Get there early because people camp out.

12/18/2011 9:59:06 AM

3 good places around Cary

- Crimmons Cir & Carmel Ct. The house on the corner of Crimmons and Kilarney has all the lights synchronized to music. Near Trader Joe's off of Cary Pkwy.

- Penny Rd & Huntingtonwood Dr. Tons of lights, a fire truck, Kermit on a Harley, and Mr. Wuf roasting Rameses over a fire.

- Coorsdale Dr in Wimbledon, near Cary Pkwy. Several houses right next to each other have their houses and yards decorated, it looks really good when they all do it together. One house has a full sized leg lamp in the window.

12/18/2011 10:00:18 AM

There used to be this guy that lived in the richest neighborhood in Greensboro, and he would completely cover his property in lights just to piss off his neighbors. The homeowners association banned colored lights in the neighborhood, so he decided to rebel. He was really young (like younger than me) but he sold a .com for $texas, so he just didn't give a fuck.

It was pretty awesome though. He put a big lighted sign on his house that said "The Groswolds of Irving Park", and he would sit in a lawn chair in the front yard in a Santa suit every night. Cars would line up around the block just to drive by it.

Not sure if he still does it though.

12/18/2011 10:25:03 AM

Quote :

"he would sit in a lawn chair in the front yard in a Santa suit every night"

Pretty sure I'd pay someone to do that for me.

12/18/2011 12:03:58 PM

^^ That sounds awesome. Especially if your neighbors are otherwise uptight and on your ass for stupid things
like the lawn being brown or what color you can paint your house.

Remind me never to live in an area with an HOA when I buy a house. Where we live in Durham is pretty cool,
people at least have 4 foot fences so their dogs stay where they should, and there's a nice retired Marine across the street who besides his occasional PTSD flare-ups, never bothers us.

12/18/2011 3:38:50 PM

there are some really nice neighborhoods around market st in greensboro that had some really nice lights we went to see a few years ago. i'm not sure if it was organized or if they just looked so nice because it's all rich people.

12/18/2011 8:14:39 PM

These are pictures of my parents' house that I helped a ton with. This display is from last year but the set up is similar now.


Go check them out!!

http://www.valleycreeklights.com/index.htm

12/19/2011 2:58:36 PM

Man, how much of a Scrooge do you feel like if you are that guy that lives in the house off to the right of that photo?

12/19/2011 3:14:19 PM

Here's this year's Amish Christmas light display:

12/19/2011 3:21:24 PM

Actually, the neighbors love it! In fact, they've let us set up a few things in their yard.

12/19/2011 3:22:01 PM

^^ hahaha give them some credit I bet they have candles in their windows

12/19/2011 3:25:31 PM

Should be a good weekend to go see the best lights in Wake and Johnston County! Just click over to http://www.valleycreeklights.com/index.htm for directions and pile the family in the car. I'll be out there both tomorrow and Christmas night and would love to meet some other TWWers.

12/23/2011 7:48:27 PM

damn that's way out there... used to drive by that area every day on the way to work when i taught at North Johnston High. Sounds like fun though, but I will be out of town tomorrow and the next day.

12/23/2011 8:51:53 PM

They'll be up through New Years (and maybe a little past that depending on who can help take them down and when).

12/23/2011 8:59:42 PM

my uncle's lights this year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2TaF_PBAOE&feature=email

12/24/2011 7:18:40 AM

12/24/2011 9:12:27 PM

Oh Lawd! That's my father's favorite movie. Ugh.

12/25/2011 1:39:26 PM

So what's the deal with the increased proliferation of synchronized lights/music and even personalized low-power radio stations?

Is this a kit that people just go out and buy nowadays? Used to be cool back in the early 2000s when you know that people had to write and construct their own synchronizers, but I'm wondering if its all plug-n-play kits now.

12/26/2011 9:46:34 AM

^ I've been wondering the same thing. I'm sure part of it has to do with the LED lights being cheaper these days but I have a hard time believing a bunch of people are manually programming their lights.

12/26/2011 10:50:55 AM

http://www.lightorama.com/

That is the website you get all the controllers and software from. It is all plug and play now. I did it for the first time last year and it was really easy to get it all set up. The most time sensitive item is coordinating each channel with the music, i.e., at what point in the song does a certain string(s) of lights come on. Luckily, a lot people upload their files and you can use them to fit your channel and light configurations. At first I thought I was going to do all the timing myself and then I realized to successfully configure one song it would probably take about 40 hours if you did it all from scratch.

12/26/2011 5:56:34 PM

Did anyone go to Meadow this year? I was on 40 over the weekend and didn't see the lights. Normally you can see them from the highway.

12/26/2011 6:02:22 PM

^^ that's cool... I will remember to be unimpressed next year at the synchronized lights.

is there a new "impressive" thing or are we just back to the, "holy crap that guy has a lot of shit in his yard" metric?

12/26/2011 7:10:57 PM

Haha Meadow... pffft. Save yourself the trouble and just go to http://www.valleycreeklights.com/index.htm.

12/26/2011 7:34:10 PM

I am still impressed with some of the synchronized lights. There is a difference between someone who creates the synchronization and someone who copies it, like myself. I always like the displays with the non-traditional christmas music.

Here is a house that synced to Bohemian Rhapsody:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eixnw6p9840

There isn't much to display but he introduces new elements throughout the song. He had to spend weeks programming this.

This is the best house I have seen. I don't think a single light is out of place. Wizards of Winter is about the most common song to synchronize with as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95ehUqpwrnU&feature=related

12/28/2011 12:09:49 AM

lol I still remember showing my students one of the Wizards of Winter light shows and them being all, "You Americans be crazy " and then asking me to play it a second time.

12/28/2011 9:13:07 AM

Like with any sort of Christmas decorating there is a scale that slides from plain---simple---elegant---gaudy---tacky. The introduction to light controllers into the main stream allows people to put up a lot more lights into their displays but that doesn't mean they always do so tastefully. I'm a bit more old school I guess because I find all of this flashy nonsense to be quite guady in most instances. I harken back to the day when chase lights were the new thing and that impression has stuck with me over the years. It's entirely possible to have a display in motion without it causing a seizure.

And don't even get me started on inflatables.....

12/28/2011 3:25:31 PM

A fucking xmas light snob?

Good lord

12/29/2011 9:00:46 PM

It's a product of having grown up with it all my life and seeing the evolution of light displays in just the last 20+ years. But, yes, I am a Christmas light snob and damn proud of it.

12/29/2011 9:10:24 PM