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C

cheeseshark

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Jan 19, 2026
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My name is Mike, and I'm from Wisconsin, USA. My show is called Mink Ranch Lights, 2026 will be my 4th year running a Christmas show, I have roughly 15k lights. I run a full falcon infrastructure with an F16v4 as the main controller. I have 6 remote controllers, 2 moving heads, a virtual (projector) matrix, and a 2x2 P5 matrix with a colorlight controller. I run FPP v9.x on 3 different raspberry p 4B's (one as the main controller, one for the virtual matrix, and one for the P5 matrix).

My real job is I'm the Fire Chief of our local department, and also run as a Firefighter and EMT. I did 40 years of IT (network engineer) before retiring to take the job at the Fire Department.

Eventually I'm looking to expand into Halloween, but I don't really have many props that will cross over.
 
Welcome.

Not sure what props you have, but most things play at Halloween... I guess candy canes, presents, snowflakes etc. look a bit funny and tombs, bats, spiders are more common, but any matrix, house outline, trees, arches, controllers, spinners, MHs, etc., are easily reused. Halloween light shows aren't going to be scary, so it's about the music, candy, etc., anyway... even if you ran with snowflakes you'd just get a couple little kids showing how smart they are pointing out that it's Christmas stuff before going back to having a good time.
 
I run Halloween and Christmas with all the same props. Mini arches, sidewalk arches, roof outline, 5000 pixel matrix and four smaller 600 pixel matrix. I’m adding floods next year. Found this. Looks great for Halloween with the black light.

yourpixelstore.com

30W Floodlights WS2814 RGB+UV Blacklight (Xconnect Pigtails) - Your Pixel Store

Illuminate your space with our 30W Floodlights featuring WS2814 technology. Enjoy vibrant colors and efficient lighting for any occasion.
yourpixelstore.com yourpixelstore.com
 
Hello Mike,

I'm outside of Chicago and half my Halloween show are used for Christmas also. I do run some specific Halloween props but started small. Depending on where you are in WI, you might be able to get a deal on some used Halloween props. :D

I do know there is a mini in WI, have you been to it? It's almost two hours from me so I've not had the time to commit to a weekend to go there. Come see us in the chat room as there are a lot of IT people there and some of us Yanks hang out there also.
 
All your stuff like outlines will cross over.

Think about what props you might be able to re-dress too. I have made minitrees into ghosts with a little fabric.
 
We've been social media stalking :) (
View: https://youtu.be/TPlGUny1two
) and it seems like the matrix, outlines, spinners, etc., will cross over nicely. There are a handful of snowflake, stocking, candy cane, and present cutouts though, you could quick-swap those for cats, hats, ghosts, spiders, bats, or something like that, just plug in one in place of the other and good to go.
 
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