| | There are a number of common questions
that we get asked all the time. This page is an attempt to answer some of
them.
 | Why do you folks decorate so much? |
Good question! In fact, we have dedicated a whole page to answer
this. You can read the answer here.
| How many lights do you have? |
To be honest, we don't really know, and we don't care. Our display
isn't about the number of bulbs, or items, or watts... We're not trying
to be the biggest (which is good, since there are other displays in the Twin
Cities area with over half a million lights...) we're just trying to have some
fun and spread the Good News of the Christmas season. If we had to take
a stab, I'd say we have somewhere around 35,000-40,000 lights.
| How long does it take to set up? |
Setup is only part of the equation. The displays need to be
constructed, the lights need to be sequenced with the computer. Old strings
need to be tested and repaired, as do old displays. Some
of this work happens in the spring and summer when few people are even
thinking about Christmas. We start the actual setup in late October or
early November, starting with the lights in the trees and other things that
aren't so noticeable, then as Thanksgiving draws closer we work for hours
getting everything else out. Usually Tim takes a day or two off of work
to get things finalized. We don't have a grand total of hours, but it's
a lot.
| How much power does it take? |
That's kind of hard to gauge. The display season is typically split
between two billing cycles, and December is typically when it starts getting
very cold, which means the furnace is running all the time. The fact that not all the lights are
typically on at the same time
typically helps keep that number lower. We have a number of
dedicated circuits around the outside of the house that power all of the
displays. From some calculations we did in past years, it's probably not
as much of a jump in the bill as you might think. And even if we had
hard numbers to share, we wouldn't as we consider the display a gift to the
community, and it wouldn't be right to know how much your gift cost, right?
| Isn't the whole thing just a big waste of power and resources?
I guess that's a matter of opinion, and someone's own personal
definition of "waste". As noted above, the amount of power
is really fairly minimal, especially compared to things like running the A/C
in the summertime. The computer control helps keep the total power
consumption down, as does our continuing use of more energy-efficient LED
lighting products into the display. But all that aside, a lot of folks
love looking at Christmas lights. It helps kids of all ages get into
the holiday spirit, and makes memories for people that might last a
lifetime. Is that a "waste"? |
| How do you get the lights to blink to the music? |
No, we don't just have a "magic box" that we can "plug
in" to a CD player (although that would be much easier!). The computer controls everything, via a software package called Light-O-Rama.
Each song is meticulously programmed by us for hours so that each of our lighting
circuits can react to different nuances in the music. For more technical
info please see this page.
This page was last updated on Thursday, November 29, 2007
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