Holland's Holiday Lights

01/01/2025

I just finished day 4 of display takedown. A take down "day" typically runs 7 - 8 hours. Given the warm weather we get each year during the Christmas to New Year timeframe, I usually start takedown on the 26th, but this year with family activities I started on the 27th.
All of the wiring and rebar, and the ground mounted display items have been removed and packed away, which was my primary goal.
The 20 foot pixel tree is packed away, the 18 foot pixel tree is still up.
All of the blowmolds and my Lexan items (except those on the towers or suspended on the trees) are packed away.
The vignettes stay until the ground freezes hard, or dries out in the spring, to allow the tractor to remove these without destroying our lawn.
I should have everything removed and packed away with another 2, or at most 3 days of work, then Mother Nature can do what she wants!
The only thing I did not complete (again) this year was to take a video of the entire display. I just ran out of energy with everything going on. Maybe next year I'll finally get one!

12/15/2024

Here's the update on our December 14, 2024 Family night with the North Pole characters.
The meteorological folks were partially right - there was no rain, snow or wind last night. The part they missed is that it did not warm up 20 degrees from the day before, rather it just hit 19 degrees for a cold, crisp evening.
Despite that we had a great turnout, with folks coming as far away as the Rochester region!

We ran into 2 interesting issues:

The first one was it was so cold that even with a heater in the bubble solution, there were several times I have to hand turn the bubble machine's mechanism to get it to turn. The bubble solution was partially frozen in the unit! Once it started to move it was fine. The most interesting point was the bubbles as they came out of the machine looked like they had fog in them, and when they landed they didn't pop, they stretched almost like rubber. The folks got a big kick out of that! I am going to coin it Young's rubber bubbles!

The second one was a problem. Our house projector would not turn on. It had power, but when I went inside to check, (It's hooked up wirelessly to the display), it showed it was disconnected! As I use a raspberry pi to connect, I figured that was the issue, as my other projector which projects videos on the front of the house worked fine. This morning it's 32 degrees, so I plugged the house projector in, and it worked gangbusters as always. None of the visitors got a chance to see the house projection videos, but there were more than enough effects going on, so no one seemed to notice!
Tonight should be interesting as it's going to get into the teens again. I developed a plan to eliminate that issue for next year.

Now it's time for me to get to answering the all NP letters and sending out the family/group pictures that were taken.

As always, this event is a team effort, so I would like to thank the folks who make this happen every year- Diane, Michelle, Aaron, Addison, Andrew, Sandy, Brian and our newest addition this year Inara. This would not happen without all of you! Thank you so much!

12/14/2024

It's a sunny beautiful day! It's cold (temps in the 20's), but warming up to around 32 degrees this afternoon.
Tonight's forecast calls for a calm night, without rain, snow or wind, in other words a perfect winter night for Elf on the Shelf, Frosty and Rudolph to visit with families on their trip here from the N Pole!
Dress the family warmly.
We look forward to seeing folks tonight between 6:30 and 8pm.
(PS I heard that Bruce our talking Spruce has a special surprise for the kids who spend a few minutes talking with him).

12/12/2024

Given the travel advisories and driving bans today (Thursday December 12) due to high winds with lake effect snow our display will not run tonight.
The weather advisories will expire tomorrow at 1pm, so the display will resume tomorrow night.
The weather forecast (light winds and warmer) looks very good for travel to our Family night event with the North Pole characters on Saturday evening from 6:30 - 8:00pm.
We look forward to seeing you then!

11/09/2024

Here's this year's flyer for our annual family night at our Christmas display.

** I have already heard from several SOY alumni who plan to make it out here on family night this year, so to all of our SOY alumni I would ask how about making it a SOY mini reunion at this year's family night on December 14th? We would enjoy catching up with each of you, and your families!

While the display, which runs daily 6-10pm from November 29th through December 25th, offers musically synchronized lighting that is often seen in displays these days, ours additionally features life sized mechanical characters along with four life sized audio animatronic characters, one of which (Bruce the Spruce) can actually carry on a conversation with visitors most nights between 6-7pm!

10/31/2024

Progress on setup has been steady until 4 days ago when my back said that’s it. First time in the 44 years I have been doing this that my age has interfered with my plans.
Back is slowly improving so I plan to resume setup, hopefully this weekend, as I certainly have more to do!
I was able to walk outside and take a few pictures on what I have up so far.
One way or the other it WILL be done in time for lighting it up the weekend after Thanksgiving.

10/13/2024

Here's our October 2024 display update:

It’s been a while since my last post, as I have been very busy with this year’s significant changes to our display. With the constant day long rain we are having here today, this gives me the opportunity to share with all of you what has been going on with the changes to this year’s (our 44th year) display.
On the installation side, which started October 1st, everything is off the house, except for the strobes and permanent lighting under the overhangs.
Our animated talking reindeer is out in the front vestibule, but is no longer mounted to the house. Along with him is our animated talking snowman.
On the South side of the house our new mega pixel tree has now been installed following 16 hours of setup for this new prop, as I converted what was the previous LED tree pole support system over to handle the number of pixels. The tree stands 3 feet taller than our previous red LED megatree. It is topped with a pixel star. The effects this tree and star produce are something to see!
Our front yard now has two corocanes and one 4 foot coroflake that are on movable metal poles, allowing flexibility of locations.
The 48 really big lights have been expanded into 4 rows with new pixel lighting, as well as having new effects.
We have some redesigned props, such as our “flying angel” over the house, among others.
To give folks a better chance to select the music playing, instead of having our control panel located on one side of the parking area, favoring the closest car parked next to it to be the one that makes the selections, it will be moved to the front of the display (near the tune to FM sign) to give all cars parked the same opportunity to select the music being played. My challenge is to find the best location possible, to avoid it from blocking the view to our front yard display elements.
On the projection mapping part of the display, located on the South side of the house, I have added several more scenes, each running about 5 minutes. In addition to the magical snowman scene, Santa’s workshop scene, and the Gingerbread family scene, this year will also feature Santa’s bakery and Santa’s post office, with all scenes now including sound from an outdoor speaker.
While I have the ability to broadcast that audio blue tooth to the cell phones of folks visiting the display, given the audio delays inherent in blue tooth I decided to forgo that. Just wind down a window and you can hear that audio.
Remember that we have the display’s synchronized music broadcast on FM 104.3Mhz, as always. A fact that some of you may not have noticed is that the song’s name (and artist) being played, is broadcast to your FM radio as text scrolling across your vehicle’s radio display. This assumes you have a newer radio, almost all of which support that.
What you can’t see is the new installed 125 feet of buried wiring leading out to Santa’s shed.
When it comes to our musically sequenced display songs, we have added several new ones for this year. They include Carol of the Bells by David Foster, Christmas eve Sarajevo by the TSO, You Make it Feel Like Christmas by Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton. I may have time later to sneak another one in.
Given the new display elements can feature some pretty amazing pixel effects, I have re-sequenced a number of songs to add these new effects. Twelve songs have been re-sequenced to include these new effects. They are: Mellekalikimaka, Holly Jolly Christmas, the Chipmunk song, Felix Navidad, I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas, Jingle Bell Rock, Christmas Can Can, Little Drummer Boy, Candy Cane Lane, Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Little Saint Nick, and Let It Go!
Bottom line, hundreds of hours have been put in since the start of 2024, and I have another 5 weeks or so of setup (and updating and fixing props) remaining to get things finished for this year’s display.
On our website you will see a countdown clock indicating the time and day (after Thanksgiving) the display lights up for the season as well as the countdown to our Family Night where the North Pole characters return for their annual visit, handing out treats, accepting letters to Santa, posing for pictures, etc. all free of charge.
Our Family Night is the ONLY night visitors are allowed to actually walk in, rather than enjoying the display while parked in their vehicles.
Updates can be found on our website: https://youngschristmas.com and on Face Book: HollandsHolidayLights
Hope to see many of you soon,
Greg

Holland's Holiday Lights | Holiday Displays | Animated Displays | Christmas Displays

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…

12/11/2023

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...