Providence Christmas » Christmas 2008

Welcome to a Providence Christmas!

Darren — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:10:54 +0000

The first thing you will probably notice is the name change! If you’re familiar with our display, then you will recognize our former name ‘Vaderville’. For more on the name change, please see About Providence Christmas.

Our display has grown bigger and better every year and now encompasses four neighboring homes all synchronized to unique arrangements of classic holiday tunes. This is our fourth year of running a computer controlled light show and we’ve nearly doubled the size of the show once again for 2009. This year our display will include over 70,000 lights, 60 strobe lights, a few virtual snow machines, a virtual Santa Claus, red and green flood backdrops, a 20′ ‘mega tree’, video synchronization, and a couple of very cool LED scanners and other special effects. Oh yeah, and don’t forget that Santa will make live appearances as we get closer to the big day!

With 128 channels of animation, a couple hundred feet of cat5 and a couple wireless networking devices to get the signal to the house across the street – this will be fantastic!

The show is synchronized to a variety of unique holiday tunes and can be heard by tuning your car stereo to 107.3 FM.

Happy Holidays!

A Missy Elliott Christmas?

Darren — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 03:02:41 +0000

What does it say about someone when they actually OWN a monogrammed Christmas ornament? I have no idea, but for some reason I haven’t been able to shake the thought that there must be some deeper meaning – ever since I ran across this ‘blinged-out’ green ornament with my first initial emblazened all ‘Missy Elliott’ like across the front (wait… where’s the front of a ball? Er, strike that.)

Share your thoughts. Click title above and leave your comments.

NBC Holiday Special

Darren — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 01:43:44 +0000

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

2008 Charitable Giving: Hilltop Church Hope Bank

Darren — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:03:27 +0000

Our annual Christmas light show is the most important thing we do all year long. Our strong belief in ‘paying it forward’ is facilitated to a great degree by the absolute joy we see every night on the faces of visitors young and old alike. This year we are partnering with the Hilltop Church HOPE BANK by collecting donations of clothing and non-perishable food items that will help some local families have a brighter holiday.

The HOPE (helping other people every day) BANK was established in 2002 by Hilltop Church in Aubrey, Texas to provide food and clothing to those in need during times of crisis or hardship. Visit www.hilltopassembly.com for more information.

A Christmas Light Enthusiasts Prayer

Darren — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 02:37:41 +0000

As I untangle strings of Christmas lights, Lord help me to remember that I do this first to honor You. Never let me get so prideful of my display that I fail to see the wonders in the eyes of a child or the joy on the faces of those who are still children at heart. Never let me forget that my total effort is to make Christmas memories, bring cheer and to slow down the pace of a hectic season if only for a moment. And Lord, someday when I meet you face to face, may I hear you say:

“When you made My people smile, you made Me smile.”

Darren Vader for President 2008

Darren — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:06:00 +0000

After my previous nomination as Secretary of Christmas I’ve taken it upon myself to start a grassroots campaign. Anyone with 400 shiny new strings of white mini lights and 3 different Santa suits should be a shoe-in for President!

Vote Vader – Vaderville for Life!

Secretary of Christmas

Darren — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 01:36:33 +0000

The snippet below in which I was named “Secretary of Christmas” was plucked from a much long and much funnier thread that I don’t think really had a focused topic. but I digress – and leave you with the punchline (names have been changed to protect the innocent):

I knew Jay could guess it. Congratulations, Jay! You will be my running mate.

Shayne/Jay/Scarlet ‘08!

I think my cabinet members will be:

Steve, Secretary of Fishing.
Darren, Secretary of Christmas
Scott, Secretary of International

Don’t forget I get to choose two new Supreme Court justices this round…

Vital Statistics: A Christmas Light Display on Steroids

Darren — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:36:33 +0000

3 houses
80,000 lights
80 channels of animation
FM radio transmission at 107.3fm
virtual snow
virtual Santa
live Santa
synchronized video
LED DMX scanners
40 strobes
mega tree with 10,000 lights
unique tree lighting affects
760 chocolate chip cookies
93 glasses of milk
and oh so much more!

2008 Play List Announcement

Darren — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:29:20 +0000

The play list for this years synchronized light show has been finalized:

What’s This?
Oh Come All Ye Faithful
Siberian Sleigh Ride
All I Want For Christmas is You
Christmas Waltz
Silent Night
A Mad Russian’s Christmas
Jingle Bells
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Now here’s the fun part; we like to use unique versions of classic holiday songs so we’ll leave it to you to come by and see which of the songs in the play list are performed by which artist:

Michael W. Smith
Transiberian Orchestra
Away TEAM
Fall Out Boy
Mariah Carey
Twisted Sister
Sinead O’Connor
In Memory

2008 Christmas Light Show Planning is Well Under Way

Darren — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:27:09 +0000

So many people I talked to this time of year tend to just stare at me in disbelief when I start rambling about my grand plans for this years synchronized Christmas light show. It usually takes me a few minutes to realize that the person I’m talking to has no interest whatsoever in what I’m saying. They also tend to be the same folks who are the most absolutely blown away with the light show once it’s up and running. And THIS is exactly why I love what I do!

This years show continues to grow. At this point it looks like we may be about three times the size of last year, which was three times the size of the year before. We’ll have three houses in a row synchronized to nine modern variations of popular Christmas tunes.

The challenge of coordinating this type of synchronization is part of what makes it so much fun – and so gratifying in the end. We’ll be running 80 channels of animation this year and have added some new lighting effects and synchronized video.

Most importantly we have settled on a charity to sponsor this year. We will be accepting donations of clothing and non-perishable food items for a local food bank that will truly benefit from our ‘pay-it-forward’ approach. We’ll make an official announcement soon.

So, we’re running around like crazy – have been all summer – preping the songs, the sequences, the videos, the light layouts and more. Still lots and lots to do before November 28th!