Holland's Holiday Lights

07/26/2024

Here's our July 2024 update:

To start off our website (https:\\youngschristmas.com) has been updated. The countdown timers to lights on, and our family night are now active.

Having just returned from our annual Christmas convention (now called EXPO) that I had been involved with, originally organizing it back in 2005 when it was called PLUS, and now teaching at it, I have added an updated presentation on using FM transmission in holiday displays.

This update covers the recent, very significant FCC actions involving the use of FM transmitters, hence the need to update the presentation!

You will find it, along with other informational presentations given over the years, in the how-to section of our website.

My major efforts over the last several months have been focused on redesigning much of our display, given our home was just sided and I have been given "direction" that nothing is to be attached to the siding.

This opened the door to adding new elements, including a new HD pixel tree to replace our long standing red LED tree, that has been in operation since 2004 (and has not had a single LED fail over its 20 season run)!

We are adding another projector to display the synchronized videos that formerly was shown via a large screen TV attached to the front of the house.

Over the next several months I will be working on moving the house elements into the display area, which will require some engineering, but will be worth it, when done.

The projection mapping that covers the Southern end of our home has been greatly improved with the addition of the new siding and some "tweaks" I have made to the projector system. Sound has been added to many of the projections as well.

That's it for now, as I still have much to do to get the display ready for this upcoming season!

02/09/2024

Our 2023 Christmas Display video has been uploaded to our website!

The link to the video section of our website is: https://youngschristmas.com/display-videos/

Scroll to the very bottom of that page to view the 2023 video.

The first 14 minutes of that video focuses on some highlights of the synchronized musical part of this year's display.
The last 10 minutes focuses on some highlights of the projection mapping part of our display. That is a bit dark, but will be rectified when we replace our dark brown cedar siding with a light brown/beige siding this summer.

I used a 20 year old video camera to film, as our more recent digital one failed just prior to filming. It did not handle the pixel lighting of the synchronized musical part of our display very well, appearing washed out on the closer pixel elements, and also did not handle low lighting well for the projection part of our display with images appearing dark. It's time for a new digital video camera!

We hope those of you who were unable to visit our display this year will enjoy some highlights of this year's display. :)

2017 Display Video 2017 Outdoor display from Gregory Young on Vimeo. 2014 Display Video Holland’s Holiday Lights 2014 from Gregory Young on Vimeo. 2012 Display Video Holland’s Holiday L…

12/12/2023

I decided to take a break from the NP letters I am answering to post a display item for sale item!
Because of using projection mapping one of my display items needs to be rehomed.
The 6 foot tree you see below was designed by me, first going into our display in 1984. Back then there were no home computers that could sequence lights to music.
The end result after seeing the Living Singing Christmas tree pageant at a local church was designing this tree.
Originally it had around 1,000 incandescent minilights. The electronics I built took an audio source (a record or CD player back then) and would change the music to the beat, as well as the frequencies of the music.
After eventually getting tired of replacing the strings every 2 - 3 years when their colors faded I retired the tree.
A few years ago I changed to LEDs, and to make it more prominent went with C7 sized bulbs. The electronics were replaced with an updated controller.
Currently it has somewhere around 480 - 490 or so red, blue and green C7 LEDs, with a star that uses minilight sized white LEDs.
Those of you who have visited the display in recent years have seen this tree, and how bright and colorful it is. It will make a great center piece for a display.
The controller is located inside the garage, and I put a standard C7 sized incandescent bulb on each of its output circuits, so I could adjust how it responded to the music without going out into the display to view it.
All you need is one AC outlet, and an audio source to have a musically synchronized display item, without programming anything. Literally this is plug and play!
You can additionally plug in some additional lighting elements that will be synchronized along with the tree (i.e. LED floods, light strings etc.) as long as you don't exceed the capacity of the controller, which is why I used LEDs.
To give you an idea of costs, the C7 LEDs which are full wave, sealed and dimmable cost $1.15 each, and the electronics is currently available for $300.
I am selling the tree, controller, and the wiring (about 40 feet) for $300. I have it mounted on a pipe, which could be included.
If interested PM me and we can discuss specifics.

12/11/2023

Group pictures from our Saturday night event that I took have been sent out to everyone, & uploaded to https://youngschristmas.com

In the upper right hand corner of the main page, click the link to photos, then scroll down the album list to last one.

Click the slideshow link. It loads faster than the individual pictures link. You can change the speed of the show.

To see full screen sized pictures click the picture link instead of slideshow link and select the individual picture you wish to see enlarged.

Now it's onto NP letter replies for me!

12/10/2023

Last night, the weather cooperated, and we had a tremendous crowd at our annual family night at the display event with the North pole characters!
This event depends on the efforts a number of volunteers each year.
My heartfelt thanks go out to Aaron, Michelle, Addison, Andrew, Brian, Grace, Sandy, Joe, Sheila and of course my wife Diane, for all of her behind the scenes efforts (and putting up with me which is no small feat! ;) ).
It was an exhausting night, but with all the smiles on the faces of the adults and children attending (especially on the faces of all the children who held animated discussions with our talking tree trying to answer his riddles) it was so very much worth all of the time and effort that was put into it!
As for me there are a number of letters to answer which is priority one, followed by mailing out group photos.
So, Merry Christmas in advance, and Happy holidays to all. :)

12/08/2023

We are all set for tomorrow night!

The weather is going to be warmer than usual for this time of year (high in the 50's with a low of 45 degrees), with a chance of passing rain "Saturday night", so if you want to be fully prepared, bring umbrellas, just in case.

I will be out there carrying a camera for those who might like a family shot with the characters. I look forward to meeting you!

12/03/2023

The thunderstorms and heavy rain have ended. It's moderate rain now, so the display will be on tonight, (unless the storms return which according to the NWS will not happen...)

12/03/2023

WEATHER ALERT: A thunderstorm with heavy rain, and lightning just went through our area. The clouds look very dark. If the heavy rain returns we will shut down the display tonight as our GFCI breakers will trip. Light rains, snow etc. is fine, but not moderate/heavy rain. Stay tuned. Will let folks know for sure by 6pm...

12/01/2023

In answer to some emails we have been receiving, our display has been running since last Saturday, running 6 - 10pm daily. Folks can talk with Bruce the spruce on most nights between 6 and 7pm.

Santa has already been very busy answering letters from our young visitors. ;)

We are getting final preparations in place for our Family Night visit with the N Pole characters which is now only 9 days away!

11/12/2023

Folks have been emailing us, asking about the changes planned for this year.
While I had planned to leave the changes as undefined, so folks could be surprised when they visit this year, I was "persuaded" to share one in advance.
Visitors will see a newly enhanced synchronized display in the front yard (along with the elves, flying Santa & reindeer and LED tree in the Southern yard as before).
The South end of our home however will now be entirely used for projection mapping!
All of the LED lighting and display elements have been removed from there and relocated.
I just completed the last projection mapping scene a few minutes ago. It was a fun learning process for me, as I learned how to create the facades, animate some of the facade's effects, and then add actual videos to many of them.
The various scenes have been combined into one large Christmas show which will run concurrently from 6- 10pm along with our synchronized display.
I have focused the scenes with children in mind, creating several scenes of a large snowman who gets into some interesting situations, a few gingerbread house short intermission scenes, several scenes involving Santa's workshop, a dancing gingerbread men scene, and several scenes involving a gingerbread family's activities.
Many scenes have some sound, which I am still trying to figure out how best to share with visitors, given our synchronized display audio is not only broadcast on FM radio, but also is shared with visitors via outside speakers which will likely cover up the local sound of the projections.
The projection effects can certainly be enjoyed without sound but the dancing scenes etc. would make more sense with it. Hopefully I will come up with something as the audio output from the projector is not loud enough.
It's hard to believe we will be starting another season in only 13 days!

11/09/2023

Holland's Holiday Lights

11/07/2023

Outdoor Halloween display items for sale:
I am selling a fully sequenced Halloween display that includes the following:
1) 4 foot singing LED pumpkin face
2) 5 large and 5 medium illuminated pumpkins (aka pumpkin choir) with extension cords
3) 16 channel Lightorama commercial (blue board) 40 amp 110/220 volt controller to run the 10 pumpkins and pumpkin face. This can serve as a stand alone controller, and has it’s ID set with rotary switches, or via the software. The blue board controllers come from their UL approved commercial controller line. The controller has an input to allow push button control of the programmed sequences, and a speed control when using animations.
4) All connecting AC cords and extensions
5) 25 fully sequenced selections, 10 of which have video, 17 of which have the pumpkin face animated, all of which have the pumpkin choir animated.

The sequences include: Adams Family, I like Nightmares, This is Halloween, Pumpkin Orange-Pumpkin White, Grim Grinning Ghosts, Spooky Scary Skeletons, Beetlejuice, Transylvania Polka, Monster Mash, Shake Your Bones, Howlin for You, Purple People Eater, Elm Street, Hungry Wolf, I Want Candy, Spell on You, Thriller, People are Strange, Halloween Theme, Ghostbusters, Lil Red Riding Hood, Superstition, Oogie Boogie, Phantom of the Opera, Werewolves of London

** The house RGB lights you see in the background are not included, however sequencing for the RGB and flood lighting is included in all 25 sequences.

You will need:
1) Software to run the show. You can use LOR software, in which case all you do is to drop the sequences into your LOR files on your computer, or show director and away you go. There is no editing needed! You can alternatively use Xlights, as the sequences are all LOR lms files, which can be imported into Xlights. The LOR controller itself can be controlled with either Xlights or LOR.
2) To display the videos included with 10 of these sequences, you will need either a window projector or a tv.

I attempted to take a video of the display in action, but need to apologize for the very poor quality!
The constant crackling you hear is the heavy rain and wind that was hitting the umbrella I was holding to protect the camera. The quality of the images seen on the TV screen were very washed out as the camera I used was not a video camera and the exposure had to be kept fully open to catch the pumpkin choir animations.
The display looks much, much better in person than what the camera was able to capture. The rain and wind got so bad I had to cut the filming short , but you should get the overall idea.

This package is being sold for $250, which is a fraction of what it cost. It will certainly take a static outdoor Halloween display over the top!

If the 25 sequenced songs are not desired I am willing to drop the price to $150 for all the listed items in numbers 1- 4 above..

11/06/2023

Over the last 6 weeks I have been able to successfully install all of the hardware and wiring necessary to operate this year’s updated display.

The next 2 weeks will be spent checking operations of all of the synchronized lighting and animations that will be used in this year’s display, with the goal of commencing display operations on our target date of the Saturday following Thanksgiving.

With the new software, the newly added and revised display elements, along with new for this year the added projection mapping of part of the display, there is a lot to check and fine tune, but I expect we should meet our goal for first night again this year.

Family Night is again the traditional second Saturday of December from 6:30 – 8:00pm. Details can be found elsewhere in our events section. I hope to get a chance to meet you during Family Night!

08/11/2023

Our 2023 season update!

I know that I have been "posting silent" for several months.
The reason for that is I have been planning out, and now am in the middle of implementing very significant changes to our 43rd consecutive display. These changes will be the largest we have ever made and will be immediately apparent to those who have visited us in the past!
I am using new software allowing me much more latitude in creating unique effects for the show portion of our display.
Visitors will see a number of new elements added this year, and some existing ones will look completely different, based on new programming.
The South side of our home (visitors see both the South and East sides of our home from the parking area) will be completely different from how it has looked in the past. I will share more on that when we get closer to opening night. It is going to be a game changer!
As a result of that new look I will be selling some of the elements I have used on the South side of our home. Details will be provided in a subsequent post.
I have programmed and added 4 new songs, added a number of new effects in several others, and changed our "visitor control panel" selections.
Each button of the control panel will pick one of the two songs listed above it. The next time it is pushed it will select the other one. Given we have 6 buttons, that allows visitors to select 12 songs, in addition to the ongoing list those being played.
Please remember buttons will not work until a previous selection has finished playing no matter how many times it is pushed, so please do NOT push any buttons until the first song you selected has ended.
The 3 buttons on the left select among 6 songs we have geared for children (or those young at heart!)
The 2 on the right are for the 4 new songs we have this season.
The button located between the 3 childrens' selection buttons and the 2 new addition buttons is for 2 popular songs that folks last year asked to be added.
I hope you all enjoy the reminder of our summer!
Now it's back to display work for me.

01/15/2023

Given the 2 storms we had this season we were unable to get a video of this year's display.
In lieu of that I uploaded video clips from our annual family night with the North Pole characters that were taken by my 11 year old grandson along with some display photos taken by his father.

Here is the link:

Given the 2 storms we had this season we were unable to get a video of this year's display.In lieu of that I uploaded video clips from our annual family nigh...

01/06/2023

I finished taking down and storing our display today! The warm weather we had allowed me to remove all of the ground wiring and rebar, so the entire display has been removed, except for the 3 trailer mounted vignettes that we remove by tractor each year when the ground dries out in the spring.
I am currently working on some of the display items, (the animatronics) that are in need of repair/maintenance.
Once those are done it's time to update the operational software, and sequence a few more songs for next season.
My Sanat's face, which I believe is latex is cracking, so I am in need of someone that can fabricate a new face, minus the jaw which is covered by his beard and moves as he speaks.
I would appreciate any suggestions on restoring his face. Santa was built back in the 1980's. My wife restored his suit a few years back. I modified his mechanisms and keep them working. We just need a new face.
We look forward to seeing you next season!

12/23/2022

I just got in after working outside the last 3 hours to take in the nonreplaceable elements of our display (the blowmolds) that I was concerned might be subject to damage.
Everything was iced over so it took longer than anticipated.
I was dressed for the weather and actually kept warm despite the fact it's 1 degree Fahrenheit with a wind chill of -22 F according to my weather station.
Bottom line our display is done for this season, 3 days sooner than anticipated....
That being said we are keeping our holiday FM radio station running 7am to 6pm for our local neighbors, but there will be no display starting at 6pm, despite what the end of broadcast message says.
We hope everyone stays in, keeps off the road until the driving bans are lifted, and stays safe.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of our friends and family!

12/22/2022

Tonight our show will go on as usual.
The storm that has been hitting folks in the Western and Central US is scheduled to impact us starting tomorrow morning with rain, with temperatures in the 40's (which it has been today), but then dropping 30 degrees (over several hours!) to the low teens producing significant icing. Winds will rapidly rise with peak gusts expected in the 65 - 70 mph range. The rain will change to snow and over the next 2 days we are expected to get between 1 and 2 feet.
The snow we can easily handle but the winds and icing will likely lead to significant power outages.
The high winds with the predicted snow amounts will lead to zero visibility at times, with closure of major thoroughfares.
Given this we will NOT be running the display Friday or Saturday.
Depending on road conditions we MAY run it one last time, on Sunday night which is our normal last day of operation each season, but I wouldn't bet on it, depending on the impact of the storm, along with the lake effect snows.
I will post an update on Sunday operations some time Saturday.
Bottom line, it's best to plan on tonight being the last night for our 2022 display.
It's currently 39 degrees, with no precipitation and clean roads, a great day to come out!

12/20/2022

We found a Nissan hubcap from someone who visited our display last evening. See attached picture. Please let me know if it's yours, or you know whose it is.
Our display runs through Sunday night, December 25th.
It's hard to believe Christmas came so fast this year!

12/16/2022

Our display will be running tonight on its usual 6pm-10pm schedule. The roads are in good shape. We expect to continue normal operations though the predicted lake effect snows over the next few days. If anything changes, we will let you know via FB and our website.

12/16/2022

12/16/2022

I just finished a call with Santa to make sure he received all the letters from the children who visited our display Saturday night. He said he had and was already sending out replies today from his workshop in the North Pole! Families should be receiving them over the next 3 - 4 days...

In response to folks' requests for some display "pictures", my 11 year old grandson borrowed his dad's camera and was taking pictures (and some videos) of our family night event.
His pictures are now available to view on our website: https://youngschristmas.com

Once there, on the main page click on display photos (in the upper right hand corner), then select scroll all the way down the lists of the various grouped pictures, to just past “Frosty and Friends 2022”, to the bottom of the list where you will find “display photos 2022”.

You can view photos individually, or select the slide show and sit back and watch the pictures get displayed sequentially (which is how I do it), the speed of which you can select.

Remember some of the items may look a little strange, as they are animated and you may only see part of the prop lit up in the individual picture.

Holland's Holiday Lights | Holiday Displays | Animated Displays

12/15/2022

Given the all day rain which has changed to slush and now is icing the road driving here in the hills has become hazardous, so to avoid folks winding up in ditches I am shutting down tonight's display.
Weather permitting (given the NWS lake effect winter weather advisory starting tomorrow), we will resume 6pm tomorrow.

12/12/2022

I just finished sending out all of the family photos taken with the North Pole characters during our family night this past Saturday. They can be found on our website https://youngschristmas.com On the main page select display photos, then select Frosty and Friends 2022 at the bottom of the list. You can view them individually, or select the slide show and sit back and watch the pictures get displayed sequentially, the speed of which you can select..

Next up is to ensure that all the letters to Santa make it to the North Pole so Santa can answer the letters!

Finally, I will go through the pictures of this year's display items, along with video snippets of the display, all taken during this year's family night event by my 11 year old grandson! He shot quite a bit, so it's going to take me a few days to go through them all and select the best to upload. Great job Andrew!! :)

Holland's Holiday Lights | Holiday Displays | Animated Displays

12/11/2022

**** For the gentleman who purchased the blue changing to white snowflake last night at our display, you left without the controller that fades the colors! Please PM me so we can make arrangements to get it to you!!

It was a great event last night! Details to follow in the next day or two.

12/10/2022

My grandson will be doing some video recording tonight during our family night at the display, so I will finally have some video for folks to see of the activities when the characters visit.
IF we get some down time tonight I'll ask him to get some videos of the display in action for our out of town friends.
His dad and mom will be working on taking family pictures with the characters, which I will email out after the event.
The weather should be great tonight for a change, unlike the last 2 years!
We look forward to seeing many of you tonight! :)

12/09/2022

In response to a few posts on my FB home page (and quite a few PMs of late), here is the last video I took of our display. While it's from 2017, and things have been added/changed, it will give folks a basic idea. I don't know that I will get time to record a video this year, as I need to get a video capture card for the pc and I have a lot going on at the present time. As to pictures, I don't like them as they can't capture the animatronics/synchronized music of our display. Here is the link to the 2017 video:

A 24 minute review of this year's Christmas display.

12/06/2022

4 days from now our 3 North Pole Characters will arrive to greet WNY families.
Our staff are all confirmed.
The electronics are working 100%.
The goodies have all been purchased.
Santa's mailbox is ready to send letters to the North Pole.
The weather is even forecast to be good this Saturday!
Remember this is a walk-in event, so park your cars along the side of the road. Those with mobility issues can be accommodated.
We are looking forward to seeing folks between 6:30pm and 8:00pm Saturday evening!

12/01/2022

Due to the rain/snow mix, with icing on the roads, and low visibility due to moderate winds we are shutting down the display tonight. We don't want anyone heading out this way tonight! We will be back tomorrow night as usual.

11/07/2022

This year's display is 99% complete at this point in time, including the new elements that have been added.

Further testing and any troubleshooting of the display needed will be the main focus for the remainder of this week.

We should be all set for lights on November 26th, on schedule!

Arrangements for our annual family night (December 10th this year), with the visit of our North pole characters has been finalized.
We look forward to seeing many of you and your families there!