Christmas Lighting in Abundance

gral writes "My boss really gets into setting up Christmas lights. He has been interviewed by a couple TV stations, because of his displays. He usually has them setup at his house. This year he has moved to a Church Yard for more space. For 2003, his display sports over 200,000 lights, each string is controlled by computer to light to the tune of a Radio Station playing christmas music. Check out his website at Planet Christmas. Some pictures of this year's display can be seen as well. Have fun and Happy Holidays."

Comments

Do we really want to engourage this?

[Skavookie]

Do we really want to encourage this sort of behavior? It may be cool and pretty, but not cool and pretty enough for the resources it consumes (both in electricity and also manufacturing, etc). Not to mention less explicit costs like the impact on traffic, wildlife, neighbors, and stargazers.

Re:Do we really want to engourage this?

[Daoenti]

I agree... What exactly does 200,000 lights have to do with "Christmas" anyway. Call me a grinch, scrooge, (troll, which I know I'm sure I'm getting here), whatever. I fail to see how this type of display really has much to do with the spirit of Christmas.

And besides, sure this guys display may be nice to look at, as long as you're not the guy that has to live next door to him. Most of us will just look at it and go "Is that really necessary?" Do people really like looking at the house Christmas threw up on?

Re:Do we really want to engourage this?

[gad_zuki!]

The worst part is that these displays are rarely creative, they're just massively extravagant.

Where is the guy working on a kick-ass animatronic reindeer or someone setting up a fund to buy decent trees or presents for the needy? They don't get the TV time (or slashdot time) these guys get. Any why? Because an almost obsessive-compulsive attempt to string up as many lights as possible is impressive?

Not to be a grinch, but I would love to see someone try something new like LEDs instead of incandescent lights. Wire them up to a sequencer or a computer and display messages, graphics, etc. Now that would be geek-worthy.

Re:What a waste of power

[Odin's Raven]

Genghis9> What a waste of power
Genghis9> And time.

skinfitz> ...and money. If he want's to throw away
skinfitz> money he should give it to a charity.

I suppose the FAQ could've been better written on the monetary point, but if I'm reading it correctly he's expecting the electic bill for the display to be about $156 [1]. Not per day, not per week -- $156 total. This is not a lot of money, nor an outrageous amount of power. An interesting point in the FAQ is that the lights are never all on at the same time, so it's not as extravagent (at least not power-wise :-) as it might appear at first glance.

Waste of time? The guy does it because he likes doing it. Some folks spend their free time rebuilding old cars, or tinkering with homebrew computer rigs, or smacking around a golfball. Any hobby probably looks like a waste of time to those who aren't interested in it, but if you're having fun doing something then it's not wasted time.

The "shoulda given the money to charity" point is a slippery slope. The PlayStation in Little Timmy's stocking costs a pretty penny -- should he get his toy when there's starving people in the world? That's a moral question, and different people will have different answers -- and I for one couldn't say which answer it "right". (And just so I don't sound too terribly pompous, I know that I'd keep the PlayStation. :-)

But isn't there something to be said for giving to your community? By all reports, a whole lot of people come by to see the display. It might not be your cup of tea, but there's many in his area who truly enjoy what he does.

[1] Total based on the 2003 portion of the FAQ that estimates the cost will increase by $100, combined with the 2002 portion of the FAQ where he estimated the bill at $56.

BTW, Google cache of the PlanetChristmas FAQ, since the original page is Slashdotted right now.