StickyWicket
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Here is the link:
http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2018/nov/27/sunnyslope-home-lights-neighborhood/
I know they don't let you read the whole article so here is the text of it:
SUNNYSLOPE — For all intents and purposes, Nick Nelson’s house is the Sunnyslope bureau of the North Pole.
Adorning his yard are 16 oversized candy canes, 189 “Really Big Lights,” 11 spiral trees, 10 talking light bulbs, 32 mini-trees, seven light trees and eight light poles, plus icicle lights hanging from his roof and an 8-foot by 16-foot web of lights that covers his garage.
And on those 275 decorations are 39,000 LEDs, all evenly spaced and inserted by hand one at a time. Everything has to be perfect.
“I am like the most meticulous person out there,” Nelson said.
The display grows every year. Nelson started it five years ago modestly enough with 12 stars lit by five lights apiece. Sixty lights. The next year it was 1,300 and then 7,000 and then 23,000. And now almost 40,000.
It’s become so elaborate that he works on it year-round with a couple buddies.
Jeff Mitchell remembers working an hour and a half to two hours a night for a week when he started helping in 2017 — and that was in June.
“This was put together by three crazy individuals who were sitting around, drinking Fanta, root beer and Pepsi and eating pizza,” Mitchell said.
But Nelson’s home isn’t just a blitzkrieg of lights a la the Griswolds’ home in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” — it’s a light show.
Each individual light is computer-controlled, allowing Nelson to program a display that’s sequenced to music. Animations flowing to the beat of the music, faces mouthing lyrics.
“I’ve always loved computers and I’ve always loved Christmas lights,” Nelson said. “And, you know, what’s better than mashing them together and doing both?”
It’s a hobby, but he wants it done right. He talks shop with Christmas light enthusiasts in online forums, he buys lights and parts directly from Chinese manufacturers to save, he customizes decorations and everything has to be symmetrical.
“I want everything to be done a certain way,” Nelson said. “Because I think that, well one, it helps in setting up, and two, it shows.”
He’s particularly proud of the light poles. They look fairly simple — just a pole with a star on top — but making them cylindrical was anything but.
The poles aren’t much wider than a medium-sized can of soup, so the wiring from the six strips of lights initially butted against each other, pushing the strips outward into an oval. The solution? Pin down the wires against the strip with zip ties.
Each pole has six strips and each strip has 31 lights. With eight poles that’s 1,488 zip ties.
“It took forever,” Nelson laughed. “But it’s like, you spend that much time putting it all on there and look at the final product.”
That’s what you get when you customize a display on this scale: lots of improvisations.
“You just kind of ham and egg it, you know,” Mitchell said. Adding, “The little tiny things you don’t even think about.”
So installing the lights and figuring out the designs is complicated. Well, synchronizing the music is, too.
“You know, you spend hours not only figuring out what color you want to make stuff — because I can make stuff any color — but also timing everything so that when it hits that point in the song that whatever you’re trying to display is on the display,” Nelson said. “Because you have so many options it can be a bit overwhelming.”
Visitors can listen in to the music by tuning into 105.5 FM.
Nelson plans to keep the lights on until at least New Year’s Eve, or until his wife tells him take them down.
His home is at 3416 Knowles Road near the Sunnyslope Cemetery. It’s hard to miss.
