New Chestermere resident John Jenkins has been decorating for Christmas ever since he bought his first house.
“I’ve been decorating my house…ever since I’ve been able to decorate,” said Jenkins.
In the last five-years he has taken his decorating to new levels by adding music to his Christmas lights displays.
He started out with a pre-programmed music box he bought at Costco.
“You just plug your lights into six zones and that box would actually play the music and it would direct the zones to come one with the beats of the music,” he said.
Jenkins did that for two years before he decided there must be more he could do.
“It’s a good starter but…it gives you the itch and you’ve got to go bigger,” he said.
He started looking on the internet and found Light-O-Rama.
“I found these guys in New York and said I’m going to give this a whirl,” he said.
He purchased the controllers and software and set about designing and creating his own custom musical light displays.
Now Jenkins spends about 40-50 hours creating and setting up the light displays and about 25 hours per song to create the flashing choreography.
“You basically take that song and you break it down to every beat in the music and you assign that beat to a different zone,” he said.
“It takes quite some time to actually program a song but once you get it you’re done,” he said.
He reuses songs after he creates them and participates in a Calgary group, Lighten Up Calgary, that shares the songs and ideas for their displays.
“It makes it a little easier,” said Jenkins.
This is his second Christmas in Chestermere but since he moved into his Kinniburgh home last November, this year is his first-year decorating in the city.
“It was pretty bare outside last year,” he said, “I think this year I kind of shocked a few neighbours.”
He said that future years his display will just get bigger and better as he figures out new ways to decorate his new home.
“I’ve spent numerous hours just staring at my house trying to figure out in my head to get a game plan,” he said.
He did get some help from a neighbour, who is a Calgary firefighter, about how to safely work on the 36 foot ladder he had to buy to reach the peaks of his roof.
“He showed me some tips and tricks,” said Jenkins.
Given the time commitment involved, he said that decorating for Christmas is a labour of love.
“When you…look out your window and you see all these kids with their noses pressed up against the glass of their cars to look at the light displays…they love it.
That’s the satisfaction for me seeing the smile on the kid’s faces and its not always kids, it’s big kids too,” said Jenkins, “you’ve got lots of adults that enjoy it as well.”
He turns on his lights display near the beginning of December, with a light up party with friends and family and keeps the display going into the first week of January.
This year at the light up he collected for the veterans food bank and now has a bin in his driveway collecting for the Chestermere Food Bank.
The light display can be view at Jenkins home on the 400 block of Kinniburgh Cove between 5:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
“I’m kind of in the back 40 here,” he said.
For the best experience tune the car radio to 88.5 FM, for the full experience of the lights flashing in time with the music.
