This is the spot that CBS 11 (hi Stewart!) ran on November 28th – opening night for our 2008 season. It rained the morning of so most of the lights didn’t even work, but it still came out nice.
Lori Forgay with the Denton Record Chronicle stopped by to visit with us last week and wrote a great piece that was printed on the front page of the Friday edition of the paper. It’s a very cool thing to see our hard work on display for all to see. Thank you to Lori for taking the interest and the time to weld together a great piece!
Click here to see the entire story:
Synchronizing Signals
Neighbors collaborate to spread holiday joy with elaborate display
Denton Record Chronicle
Friday, December 12, 2008
Looks like this year we’ve broken out of the Texas media market and into some national spots. On top of the pending spot in the NBC Christmas special, I got a call from Beth Davis with the Dwyer & Michaels morning show on 97X Fm in Davenport, Iowa (WXLP 97FM, Cumulus Broadcasting). Looks like I’ll be on the air with them tomorrow morning (Wed., Dec 3) at about 8:30am CST.
It seems that they are big fans of Christmas lighting too!
You can listen to the show live by clicking the “Listen Now” link here: http://97xtest.homestead.com/index.html
We’d like to thank Carol Cavazos with Channel 11 News for coming out last night. Her team put together a nice spot that ran on the 10pm broadcast. It’s the media that drives the awareness and sets in motion the process of ‘paying it forward’ with our food drive for the HOPE Bank in Aubrey. We greatly appreciate their support!
I’ve received several emails from old friends and family who saw the spot on the news last night. It’s interesting how many people who I have lost touch with ‘find me’ every year at Christmas time.
The power of the media works in mysterious ways.
I want to send a very big thank you out to Andrea Hikel and the 380 Guide for coming by our place last saturday to chat with us about this year’s display and the HOPE Bank. Andrea is writing a story for the December issue of 380 Guide Magazine that should be a great read. We’re looking forward to it.
Thanks Andrea!
I received an interesting email from Gina Gonzalez with JUMA Entertainment today. They are producing a one-off holiday special involving holiday home video for NBC and have shown some interest in our light show videos. That would be pretty cool! I’ll keep you posted. (BTW: the “Nutcracker” video she mentions has now been viewing by 311,000 people and counting).
Hello! My name is Gina Gonzalez and I am an Associate Producer from JUMA Entertainment in Los Angeles. We are currently working on a new holiday special for NBC that I was wondering if you’d be interested in? I came across your very entertaining Christmas Lights videos, and loved them, especially the Nutcracker! We’re scanning the country for funny, memorable, and entertaining holiday home videos of all kinds to be part of our countdown. So if you’d be interested in submitting this video, or videos, please e-mail me at as soon as possible for all the details. Thanks for your time, I hope to hear from you real soon!
Thanks Again!
Gina Gonzalez
JUMA
Associate Producer
323-969-1989
Yesterday was one of those gratifying days that makes all the hard work worth it. Steve Stoler with Channel 8 called yesterday afternoon saying they wanted to come out and shoot our computer animated Christmas light display for the 10pm show. At about 6:15 we heard a helicopter and then saw it coming in close – very close with spotlights and all. The copter hovered for a bit, Steve arrived a few minutes later and then the mobile broadcast van arrived. In all they spent over 4 hours shooting video, interviewing the kids, editing the shows and doing a live segment on the 10pm broadcast. Very much fun!
i want to thank Channel 8 and Steve Stoler for coming out. One of our goals was to spread the word enough to get people coming out in large enough volumes to warrant the beginnings of a food drive for the North Texas Food Bank. Well, tonight we put out our first collection box and announced the drive and thanks to the support of Channel 8, 380 Guide, Frisco Online, The Dallas Morning News, KERA and others over the past week; we had the largest crown ever tonight. Including a couple of shuttles showing people around the areas light displays and a big ‘ol ‘tour bus’ full of folks from Allen! More importantly, we filled out first collection bin for the North Texas Food Bank.
I love Christmas!
Click here to listen to my 2007 interview with National Public Radio: Click here to listen to my interview with National Public Radio.
Here’s another article on our light display. This one is from the Denton Record Chronicle:
Is your yard or a neighbor’s all decked out in lights, figures and fake snow?
The Lake Forest Good Samaritan Village, a retirement community in Denton, has plenty of lights and a cheerful St. Nick in its courtyard.
The Creek Hollow 800 Cottage division of the center has put up an impressive lighting display for the past four years, and residents hope local holiday enthusiasts will visit their display.
The Hanus family, at 2204 Fairfax Trail, shows off a nativity scene in its front yard. Accent lighting comes on each evening to highlight the pop-up book style scene.
The Hanuses wrote, We have our nativity scene all set up for our grandchildren to enjoy when they arrive in Texas from North Carolina.â€
The Vader family in Aubrey has not only an orchestrated lighting display, but a Web site and blog about its ambitious annual phenomenon.
“This year [2007] our display will include over 30,000 lights, 30 strobe lights, a virtual snow machine made out of a rotating disco ball, a virtual Santa Claus, red and green flood backdrops, a new mini-mega tree and a fancy new sign announcing the audio signal at 107.3 FM”, Darren Vader writes on the family’s holiday blog.
The idea is for motorists to drive by 1441 Providence Blvd. in Aubrey with their radios tuned to 107.3 FM. The lighting at the Vaders house is coordinated with holiday music broadcast on the station.
The Vaderville show runs from 6 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 6 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights.
Submit a photo of your display, or a neighbor’s, using the Let Us Know feature at www.denton
rc.com. Click on the Local button, and submit your photos and description using the news item category.
Include your name, address, how many lights you’ve used and your theme.
Lucinda Breeding
