We just wanted to say “Thanks!” to everyone who helped make this Christmas season so great. Whether you sent us a nice note or just waved as you saw us coming or going, we appreciate all the positive feedback. We also apologize for not getting back to everyone… There was simply too much to keep up!

The grand total collected for the Wilton Food Pantry as of 10 PM on January 6th was $1,165.39 which is the equivalent of ~7284 lbs of food at the discount price the Food Pantry gets from the Good Shepard Food Bank in Auburn. We’ll be bringing all of your checks and another check for the cash and online donations to Kitty McDonald (the Food Pantry Administrator) later this week. Thanks go out to everyone for your contributions, but a special thanks to the 3 angels who each contributed $100.00, and another special thanks to all those who wanted to give so badly that it came down to pennies. It all helps the cause and goes a long way. In fact, the coin donations alone were enough to buy more than 50 lbs of food for families in need. Way to go!

And just to answer what is by far the most common question we get – Yes we plan to set the display up again next year. In fact, we’ve already started editing new music tracks and stocking up on new lights (despite the low quantities available in after Christmas sales, we were still able to find the bargains).

New Lights For Christmas 2010

We plan to add roughly 13,000 more lights next year bringing our total to somewhere around 30,000*, adding some color to the house, and a special addition we think everyone will really love.

So once again, thank you all for such a wonderful season. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and that the new year is filled with many blessings for you and yours!

We’ll see you in October for the Halloween display!

Peace,

Kim & Phil

So in summary – If you want to see the full display, do it quick. We’re not sure how much longer that part of it will be around.

Read on for the new songs and schedule info…

We just wanted to let everyone know that on the following dates the lights will have an alternate song playlist, swapping out 4 of the current songs for 4 non-traditional, non-holiday songs:

December 31st, January 1st, 3rd, and 5th.

The songs we’re adding are:

ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” (from the Mamma Mia! Soundtrack)
Chris Brown’s “Forever”
Daft Punk’s “Harder Better Faster Stronger”
Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta’ Feeling”

You may have caught us outside in the driveway after midnight testing them last weekend.

To make room in the show for those songs we will be removing:

David Foster’s “Carol Of The Bells”
Bob Rivers’ “Manger 6 Advertisment”
Go Fish’s “Joy To The World”
Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Christmas / Sarajevo 12/24 (Carol of the Bells)”

Why are we doing this? Because we think seeing Christmas lights dancing to non-Christmas music is amusing and with all we have invested in the setup, we want to use it for all we can before tearing it down.

In any case, we’re providing you all with some warning just in case you’ve told someone to come check out the lights and they won’t be getting quite the same show you told them about. You can still get an all Christmas display (or mostly so, that first song is still not very Christmas-y) with the regular playlist so long as you come on days other than those mentioned above.

We hope you like the new songs (we do!) and that you have a safe and happy new yer!

The display is our gift the community and comes with no strings attached, but if you would like to give something to the community as well, please consider making a donation!

Thank you and Merry Christmas!

UPDATE: As of December 27th, $844.08 has been collected. That’s 5275.5 pounds of food!
Way To Go! Every Little Bit Counts! Keep It Up!

The donation tally is updated almost daily on the donations page.

And just to keep things interesting, we’ve posted a few “behind the scenes” pictures to Facebook which aren’t available on this website!

You can “become a fan” today!

Merry Christmas!

Be sure to let us know which song(s) you like best. We’ll most certainly be changing the playlist for next year and we’ll try to keep/improve the ones you all like the best! Also, if you have questions about something send them along as well, and we’ll set up a page of answers here on the website.

On a related note – Please remember to keep your car radio down to a reasonable volume. We heard one car from inside the house tonight (no joke!) and as much as we love Christmas music, we’ve been listening to these particular 11 songs all year while programming the animations, and we could use a break from them while we’re eating dinner or watching TV. Thanks!

Merry Christmas!

Have a look!