Not doing a show this year

[isimpleman]

i live on the street a block from christmas on the pecos people come from all over the world to see the river shows and i take serious heat frome the city. for traffic issues in front of the house. but on the other end of the spectrum i enjoy doing this and most people enjoy the show.so bahumbug let the traffic jams begin.now wheres my b.b gun to shoot out that dastily street light.:cool:

[CKSedg]

I wouldn't shoot out the streetlight that is right on the corner by my house; but I sure wish it would go away---burn out, or something.

[l0chte]

jstorms wrote:

This is my 2nd year. Last year I was worried that no one would come so I "got the word out" and did a really good job. They came in droves. People drove from hours away, sat in line for over an hour, that often stretched a half mile. I *LIKE* Christmas lights, but I wouldn't do this, and I didn't think anyone would.

This is my 2nd year and now that the neighbors see me putting put lights they are like, "Yeah, we need to talk..."

So I step back and ask myself, "What do I really want out of this?"

1. Do a really cool/fun/wow-factor light show for me and my family.
2. " for friends and neighbors.
3. Don't destroy the Christmas holiday for me and the neighborhood. Yeah, it's no so much fun only being able to do one song to avoid the cars being stacked up for 1/2 mile.

...But I have a really good solution. Just don't do a show.

So I do the lights statically, and then every so often, almost sporadically, without warning kickoff 1-4 musical sequences and then back to static. People won't be able to predict when the musical sequences will be, so they won't queue up.

The effect is I'll lose some repeat lookers (that needs to happen anyway), my family gets to enjoy the lights (anytime we want), and we keep the traffic down.

Means my scheduler is going to be pretty complicated this year. Might have to do some scripting to automatically generate this file. Anybody have some cool tips on creating mini shows that kick off randomly?

Kind of sad, I was looking at your website last night and looks like it was a heck of a show.

[Guest Don Gillespie]

jstorms wrote:

This is my 2nd year. Last year I was worried that no one would come so I "got the word out" and did a really good job. They came in droves. People drove from hours away, sat in line for over an hour, that often stretched a half mile. I *LIKE* Christmas lights, but I wouldn't do this, and I didn't think anyone would.

This is my 2nd year and now that the neighbors see me putting put lights they are like, "Yeah, we need to talk..."

So I step back and ask myself, "What do I really want out of this?"

1. Do a really cool/fun/wow-factor light show for me and my family.
2. " for friends and neighbors.
3. Don't destroy the Christmas holiday for me and the neighborhood. Yeah, it's no so much fun only being able to do one song to avoid the cars being stacked up for 1/2 mile.

...But I have a really good solution. Just don't do a show.

So I do the lights statically, and then every so often, almost sporadically, without warning kickoff 1-4 musical sequences and then back to static. People won't be able to predict when the musical sequences will be, so they won't queue up.

The effect is I'll lose some repeat lookers (that needs to happen anyway), my family gets to enjoy the lights (anytime we want), and we keep the traffic down.

Means my scheduler is going to be pretty complicated this year. Might have to do some scripting to automatically generate this file. Anybody have some cool tips on creating mini shows that kick off randomly?

Ask yourself two questions, do you and your family love the display? question number 2 are you really close with your neighbors?

If you answered yes to the first question and no to the second question then do your display, neighbors are nice people but can be a pain in the a$$, if they don't like the display they don't have to watch it, the way I look at life is we are only here for so long, so we might as well do what we enjoy, if that means doing a Christmas display then go ahead, if your neighbors told you they didn't like the car you drive are you going to buy a new one? do not let them intimidate you, they don't own the street and you never mentioned anything about city bylaws saying you can't do a display, why should you suffer because an Ebineezor Scrouge doesn't like Christmas.

[Dave Boros]

Well said, Don.

[doug petschke]

In a way i agree with Don but in a way I don't
I like the someones idea to make the show shorter with static display in between so the traffic keeps flowing. and if you do a quick voice over on your fm transmitter to inform those who are visiting your display with a simple viewing requests like " please don't block the anyones drivway and not litter etc. to be respectful of your neighbors .. I'm sure your neighbors will hear this at some time an at least cut you some slack and hopefully your visitors will respect you and our neighbors by abiding by the simple requests you ask

just sayin....

[rwertz]

Its one thing to say the neighbors don't have to watch the show if they don't like it. It's quite another to turn their neighborhood into a major public attraction that forces them to wait in line just to get in their driveways every night. It seems pretty selfish to create that type of circus in front of their house every night for a month if they don't want it.

But, if they don't mind the problems it presents then that's great