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Save the date!!
Saturday December the 8th. at 7:00 pm 2011 Grammy Nominated Singer Judy Pancoast (www.judypancoast.com) will be coming to our house to preform a live Christmas Show! This will be a FREE show to benefit the local food banks! Judy will be preforming songs off her new Christmas album PLUS she has written a Special Version of her world famous Song "House on Christmas Street" just for us! Join us for the show, Hot Chocolate and cookies!
Information below on our regular start date!
We would like to invite all to our Christmas Spectacular on Main Street starting Friday November the 30th. The address is 128 North Main Street Cranbury NJ 08512.
Our shows will run on the hour starting at 6pm and the last at 8pm. Each show runs approximately 45 minutes with all the lights on after each show.
Our show this year is made up of over 75,000 lights, we have added another 112 channels of music to make a total of 432 for 2012! We have 22,000 feet of extension cords and 15 songs ranging from the traditional to the "whimsical" Christmas songs for the kids. NEW THIS YEAR, over 20,000 lights on our lawn! Back again our Mega Tree with 9,600 lights and my own own design 20 foot by 20 foot wall of snow flakes with 6,400 lights,
PLEASE HELP others this Holiday season.
A lot of work goes into this display to bring joy to 1000's of people. For those who are able, Please help us help others who do not have what many of us are blessed to have. We realize there are many great charities to support, especially during the holidays, but food is such a basic necessity and there are far too many people, kids in particularly that just do not have enough. My family, Marina, Alexander and Kristopher are blessed to be able to bring this display to you but we ask kindly for your generosity to help those who need help.
So many people have said they would just like to come and enjoy the show and give a cash donation and quite honestly that works for us. The logistics of all the food collected is daunting. So this year we will be accepting only cash donations. There is a collection bin located on the front of the property near the telephone pole. Besides the hope of giving much needed Joy to those in the area we have again partnered up with the He Cares We care Food Bank.
As you can imagine due to Sandy, so many are in need this year that normally would be. For those who can help it would be greatly appreciated by many.
FAQ'S and Etiquette
Display Etiquette
We are happy to have you as a guest to view our display. As we and our neighbors have to live here all season (and not just visit it once or twice), we are asking you to help us out by abiding by the following -- and please pass this information on to anyone you might refer our display to:
Please do not block the street, or any driveways.
Please keep all litter in your vehicle
Please do not use driveways to turn around.
If you'd like to stay and watch the show for awhile, that's great. Just make sure you pull off the road. If you have a particularly noisy vehicle, it would really help us keep neighborhood peace if you didn't idle it for long periods of time. If you can shut it off for awhile, that would make our neighbors happy.
Similarly, please avoid honking horns (whether to show appreciation, or other reasons). If you'd like to leave us feedback we'd love to hear from you at theplanet@planetofwine.com
FAQ?s
How do you control the lights?
Everything is controlled with software and hardware from Light-O-Rama. For 2010 we have added another 64 channels for our Snowflake Wall bringing our total Music Channels to 432! For 2010 we had 160, for 2009 we were using 96 channels of music, our 20 foot tree uses 96 just for that. Our display for 2007 used 36 different channels, 2008 was 48. This allows us to control almost every element in our display between Red, White, Green and blue. The stars you see on the right side of the property take up 14 channels just for them. Because of how the display has to be set up, we use 22,000' of extension cords, yes almost 4 miles!!
How many lights do you have?
For 2012 we have 75,000! There were about 10,000 lights for 2007 for 2008 we had around 15,000 for 2009 we have over 25,000 and this year for 2010 we had around 35,000 for 2011 we have 52,000!
How much power does it take? How much is your electric bill?
99% of our lights are LED which provides a much brighter display while at the same time conserving energy.
Most of the time only 30% of the display is on because it is animated which helps conserve power. A lot of smaller displays actually use more power than mine, because they are always "ON". The power bill for 2008 was only about $90 more than normal.
Do you have your own Radio Station? How are you transmitting to my radio?
We use a small FM transmitter the broadcasts on 89.9 FM. It only goes a short distance which allows people to listen to the music within sight of our display.
How much time does it take?
We start our Christmas light display on November the 1st. This year I hire four people to help me put up the lights on the roof. The front of the house and the yard I do myself with the help of friends.
For the 2012 season I spent about 100 hours or so designing the display which most is spent in programming the lights to the music.
How much did this cost?
???
Good question, but you can?t put a price on the amount of joy our light display brings.
What do you do for a living, are you an electrician or in the theatrical business?
No, I am a Wine Consultant. I am also the founder of www.planetofwine.com I started this November 2007 with zero knowledge of how to do a display like this. I read a lot on the internet, and had a lot of trial and error but within 30 days had 10 songs up and running!
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Last edited by iamawino on Wed, Dec 5 2012, 9:04 pm EST; edited 2 times in total
Posted: Thu, Dec 6 2012, 7:22 am EST Post subject: Re: Re: Christmas Spectacular on Main Street PLEASE vote for our house!
Yes it is Cash only this year. Last year it was logistical very difficult to manage. Quite honestly we had so many people who said they would much rather donate cash than drag food out of their house we decided to go that route. We account for the money every night and these totals are given at the end of the season.
We are so grateful it seems to be working for this year. Last year we collected in total cash $2683.60. The first six nights last year we had collected $96.00 in total. This year for the first six nights we have collected $472.53!!!!!!
We are very humbled by all the support we receive not only from the donations but many kind words and help from friends and neighbors to make this possible.
Posted: Sat, Dec 8 2012, 9:31 pm EST Post subject: Re: Re: Christmas Spectacular on Main Street PLEASE vote for our house!
Passed the display tonight all I could feel is sorry for all the neighbors.How has this been allowed to happen? Who is paying for the police that are directing the traffic Is it costing more for the police then is raised. My guess the taxpayers are paying. If this is truly being done to help people in need then why not move this display to a place like the Princeton Alliance Church they have plenty of parking ,alot more people would be able to see this display,and in turn alot more money would be donated. If this is really the motive for this display. Yes this display is nice to see once, not over and over and over like the neighbors have to put up with it. This house may win money for the school maybe, but as a very long time taxpayer here. We have done well without this money . To take away from this many neighbors the right to have their own Christmas does not seem fair. I really do not think you have that much support from the neighbors
Posted: Sat, Dec 8 2012, 11:26 pm EST Post subject: Re: Re: Christmas Spectacular on Main Street PLEASE vote for our house!
In response to imustbewino-1q2p, everyone is welcome to their own
opinion, but who the hell writes like that? Lets all now say a silent prayer they they are not a product of the Cranbury School system.
Posted: Sat, Dec 8 2012, 11:45 pm EST Post subject: Re: Re: Christmas Spectacular on Main Street PLEASE vote for our house!
How do you know they are not a "product of the Cranbury school system"? Maybe it's a neighbor who is sick and tired of dealing with the traffic, lights and noise and his lived all their life in Cranbury. I have also driven by this display and I have to agree with the earlier sentiment. It's nice for a few minutes but to deal with this on a daily basis is asking a lot of the people around you.
Posted: Sun, Dec 9 2012, 9:28 am EST Post subject: Re: Re: Christmas Spectacular on Main Street PLEASE vote for our house!
At the end of the day you have to LOL at the small group of curmudgeons who like to complain about everything around here. Every community has a few, but this anonymous forum gives them more of a voice since they can complain facelessly and people can't just avoid them like they do in person.
These people must be just miserable with frustration that the world isn't arranging itself to their liking, so you have to pity them. Just think of all the things that can get them worked up. Holiday lights -- bah, humbug! A Menorah next to a Christmas tree -- what is this world coming to? Let's not forget to complain about the annual haunted house too, because it attracts to many of those little ruffians they call children!
In their perfect world Cranbury would be frozen in time -- no newcomers allowed, no young "yuppies" with kids, no one with dangerous progressive thoughts, etc. By definition any activity is suspect because it may be spending their meager contribution to the Township tax rolls (ironically ignoring that those "yuppies" and all the warehouses are contributing most of the taxes). Fireworks -- No! Memorial Day parade -- no! Cranbury Day -- disgraceful! Cleaning up fallen trees -- if the Township does it, they are wasting our money, but if they don't do it fast enough they are mismanaged! And don't even think about volunteering for public office, lest you want to be anonymously attacked for your agenda and bad intentions!
As I sit at home looking at my Christmas tree, surrounded by my little ruffians, reflecting on what a great town this is, all I can say is I am grateful I don't have to suffer these hateful people any more than I choose to by visiting this forum, which every once in a while has a useful, productive post that might otherwise get lost in the noise of all the full-time complainers.
Thanks Keith, in any event. Please ignore the small group of whiners. You know full well most of us appreciate your effort.
Posted: Sun, Dec 9 2012, 10:24 am EST Post subject: Re: Re: Christmas Spectacular on Main Street PLEASE vote for our house!
Actually Cranbury Day, the fireworks and memorial day parade were happening LONG before the yuppies decided to take over Cranbury. It always amazes me when people move into a community that is known for its "old ways" and it's "frozen in time" feel and decide that's not good enough for them... Hey, people have Christmas decorations up, that's not good enough for me. I have to create a "spectacular show". So yes, at the end of the day you do have to LOL at people.
