2003 Display – Plymouth Lights

2003 was a major year for our display, as it was our first year with computerizing the lights and synchronizing them to music. We were the first display in the Twin Cities to do this, and the only one for several years.

For this initial year we had 40 computer controlled channels. 32 of them were used on our Mega Tree. (A bit of trivia: Mega-tree is now a standard term for these trees among decorators. Tim believes he originated the term here on PlymouthLights.com, and on the Planet Christmas discussion forums). The original tree was made up of 4600 lights in three colors, a strobe light, and a star. This allowed the tree to change colors, spin around, and do many visual effects, all synchronized to music.

We acquired a large “Remember Jesus” sign from a decorating friend in Ohio, and it used 2 computer-controlled channels. To round out the 40 channels, we wired our icicle lights to use 4 channels so they can chase around the house, and had two rows of lighted candy canes flanking the driveway.

As always, our Kneeling Santa display was prominently displayed on the corner of our property, easily seen from both streets. — Kneeling Santa 2003

remember jesus

We found this cool animated train to add to our display as well. — Train 2003

Here's a view of our property, as seen from the back. We added icicle lights on the sides and back of the house, and they, too are computer-controlled. Cars driving along this side of the property get a great view of the icicle lights chasing around the house and doing other effects. It also shows a portion of the approximately 200' fence we light up along this side. — Back and fence 2003

We created a blog of design ideas for the 2003 display.