Why do you do it?

Snicko

Snicko

Full time elf
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Messages
116
Location
Se Melbourne
Following on from a post on the FB Group


So - Visited Michael Eather and his fantastic display Grange Road Lights Nightly Show and seeing what he is doing to raise money for a great cause that means a lot to him and his family and it got me thinking..... Why Do You Do It?

What is your reason for putting on the pixel show and spending thousands of dollars on this per year.


Sure i have seen the posts about this is just a hobby etc etc, But to some people its way more than that..... Seeing the difference that some of you are making is truely amazing. Mikey has raised nearly 50K for Breast Cancer which is truely amazing, and way more than just a hobby. It's a purpose, it makes a difference, and its way more than a hobby!
For me - It's about the kids and seeing the smiles, and dancing and making Christmas that special time of year that they look forward to for many many years!
So - What is your reason for this?
 
I put up lights because it's a fun hobby, looks cool and involves a lot of electronics, which also has the fun of tinkering and building your own equipment to make my display unique.
The added bonus of this is it brings joy to all the people who visit the show to see a house covered from top to bottom in hundreds of thousands of lights.
Another thing I like to do is put up a list of suggestions for light displays people can travel to, as a lot of smaller displays are less likely to be visited as they won't be as well known.
We also collect for the SPCA and have collected over $5000 for them in the 5ish years we have had a donation box out.
 
After decades of lighting the house with AC of every variety (straight strings, icicles, flashers), I saw a certain "Wizards in Winter" on the net. Having a chance to purchase a display (still AC) I jumped at the chance and promptly sold it to our local drive through (all static) display. The caveat placed by the display group was that I came with it as "I was the only one who could figure this stuff out." So in the beginning it was curiosity and a mandate.

Since then there have been several instances that have kept me in the game. Most prominent in my mind is the mother who came to our display in the park in an old beater of a wagon that should have been scrapped many moons before. She came each night. Each night she put some change in the donation box. I was on the gate most nights one week and on about the third time she visited that week I told her that she had given more than enough. (She looked like she had nothing to give.) She said she had to. I asked why. She turned on her dome light and in the back seat was a young person who wasn't moving at all. She said he didn't move all day, but when she brings him out to the display he becomes quite active. When he hears the music and sees the blinking lights, he rocks to the music and claps along with the lights.

It is incidents like this, and many more, that keep us doing what we do. No matter how much time or funds it takes, I'll keep going.
 
My sister in law first put up lights after the death of my firstborn child in 2000. After her (and my father in law) doing that from about 2000 to 2003 I decided that I could put up some lights and as I had an electronics background I thought I would have some of the lights chasing when I started in 2004. After having some simple back and forth chases with the incand lights I thought that the music that I was pumping out should really drive the lights at least semi directly. I built up a simple VU meter circuit that was input into a micro and that changed the way in which the VU meter got mapped onto the light strings. About then I saw a viral video by Carson Williams synched to Wizards in Winter. That started my journey down the computer controlled displays when I bought a whole bunch of LOR kits when the Aussie dollar was only worth about $USD0.50. After I went to a synchronised display I started to get more and more traffic and about 6 or 7 years ago we started handing out candy canes and other lollies nightly. 1 child saying wow is enough for me to do my display but we get maybe a dozen cars a night early in December through to a few hundred a night in late December. We also get full sized buses doing light tours, hot rod clubs, VW clubs, motorbike clubs, 20 seat buses from the retirement homes as well as some foot traffic. Since 2020 it's been somewhat more subdued although I've still done a fairly large (and loud) show. 2020 was the year of Dan's lockdown due to covid and there was no candy canes given out at all. A fair few people around but pretty well everyone staying in their cars. 2021 was also fairly quiet with covid still being a nuisance but Christmas eve I suited up in a facemask and gloves and handed out maybe a thousand candy canes for the night. 2022 was almost a washout as my father in law died of a heart attack in November and I wasn't overly in the spirit. My daughter started putting up lights and we ended up doing probably a half sized display. 2023 continued with the appalling run of Christmases that we had had since 2020. On the 1st December my mother in law passed away due to breast cancer. If I hadn't already been a fair way into putting out lights my 20th year in a row of doing lights would have been darkness. After seeing some selfie wings at the Melbourne mini during 2023 I decided at the start of November that I should have some to encourage more people to get out and take pictures and to loiter around some more. Hundreds of photos have been taken with my wings and the highlight of this godawful December was a friend calling over with her daughter and granddaughter and I had a few photos taken in front of the wings. There's been a few dogs visit the display and I've been able to give them a pat which for the 2 years of covid I couldn't/didn't and in the few nights that I've been out so far I've given out hundreds of lollies and had lots of kids (and some big kids) say that the display is awesome. The display is under half of the lights that I actually have but I gave up trying to get more lights out and connected.
If anyone has seen me out handing out candy canes they will know that there is few things that bring me more joy. I pretty much sing along (badly) with every word of every song all night long. 1 wow is enough to make me happy. 100s/1000s of wows is the reason that I have kept doing this year in and year out. My music selection is selected to make people happy. Most won't "know" most of the songs as included are a whole bunch of parody songs by Bob Rivers. Nearly every 1 of the songs is very Christmassy and nearly all of them will encourage kids of all ages to bop along.

Decorations-Bob Rivers
Wreck The Malls- Bob Rivers
Police Stop My Car - Bob Rivers
Toy Sack - Bob Rivers
Alvin and the Chipmunks - Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree
Christmas Can Can
Disco Santa (Santa ClausN.O.E.L.)
Dominick_the_Donkey
Hilary Duff - Jingle Bell Rock
Nuttin' for Christmas
Penguin James Penguin- Brad Paisley
Santa Claus Lane - Hilary Duff
Snoopy and the Red Baron Christmas
The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)
The Season's Upon Us
Wizards in Winter
YMCA (XMAS version) - Furnace and the Fundamentals
 
Simply, I enjoy it and the local kids love it. But I don't know if I'll do it next year.
 
Saw some YouTube videos on music sync’d lights and loved it. Always put out lights but started with solar and extra low voltage ones.
Plus I love a challenge and learning the systems is fun and frustrating at times haha. It’s also a creative outlet and a good break from the day to day grind.

My 2 daughters love dancing to the lights and music, and kids around love it so more than enough reason for me.
 
I don't even want to do it anymore. There was that hot mom that gave me a hug a few years ago. Unless that happens again its time to shutdown and go master a new hobby.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: AAH
Started during COVID. Took me a while to kick off before that. It’s a real family event and we all do bits and pieces to make the show hum. Raising money for Royal Children’s Hospital this year and bigger plans for next year hopefully. Love the hobby and its a great community of people to hang out with online.
 
Jase said:
its a great community of people to hang out with online.
Click to expand...
This is a huge contributing factor. I am very grateful for the account of information sharing and guidance that everyone gives each other here, all to make each other's shows run well.
 
I like playing with lights, I hope that translates to enjoying Christmas more cos people look at you funny when you put up thousands of lights just about any other day of the year.

Seriously tho, I get the warm and fuzzies when kids hear bluey or the duck song and start screaming along to it or dancing on the grass.

Hopefully next year I'm big enough and busy enough and I can figure out how to take donations cos I recon the foodbanks around here could use a top up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top