Location

[goslow5]

I live on a dead end street and am starting to wonder if it is even worth it. Some other people live on a street that cars go by. People will not come to see it unless they know it is here. Is doing a display even worth it if you live on dead end?

P.S. Tell me if this is the wrong place to post this question.

[Donny M. Carter]

I recently went to see a show in Alabama and it was on a dead end road. The display was great and it was packed with cars. This display was even kinda out of the way! Don't worry, build the display that makes you happy and people will start to show up. Good luck!

Donny

[grandlakedad]

I live in a very small community in the Colorado mountains 6 miles from the nearest town and 2 miles from the highway on a dead end road in the winter. The first few years I didn't have a lot of people come see the show but over time and word of mouth I now have several car loads every night and the weekends the driveway is packed. Keep your head up and spread the word. My local hardware store knows me by first name and is a great source of advertising for me.

[james campbell]

I am in the same boat this year, my first. I have only one car who stayed more then 5 minutes,not much traffic I am about 5 miles from town and most of the traffic goes to the other side of the road. I am happy with my display and several people have seen it ,but not what i would like. I know it is cool and get a little ticked when people cruise by and don't realize what the lights are doing:? bigger and better next year. also thinking about a Christmas light blog for displays in my area. I love to see others lights and I would also like to know where more are at

[ken collins]

I live on a dead end road. When we started. nobody knew where we were, and didn't get much traffic. It bothered me at first. We're on our 6th year, and have to have traffic attendants out every night. Sometimes its too much for us. Be careful what you wish for

[goslow5]

Well I actually live in a cul-de-sac and only people that live here come by. Will it still evolve over time?

[caniac]

goslow5 wrote:

I live on a dead end street and am starting to wonder if it is even worth it. Some other people live on a street that cars go by. People will not come to see it unless they know it is here. Is doing a display even worth it if you live on dead end?

P.S. Tell me if this is the wrong place to post this question.

If you build it they will come!!

[goslow5]

caniac wrote:
If you build it they will come!!

Very good point

[james campbell]

but I don't live in Iowa

[Aaron Maue]

james campbell wrote:

but I don't live in Iowa

OK. That's a little funny. Especially since I DO live in Iowa.

I agree with the other comments. We live on a cul-de-sac a mile north of a very small town. Our first week, we probably had 10 cars total. And these were just people that the neighbors talked to. While I wouldn't say they're backed up for miles, last Saturday, I'm guessing we had somewhere around 75-100 cars, based on the number of candy canes we gave away.

We have a Facebook page for our display. That makes it easy for friends, friends of friends, and visitors to spread the news. It's very simple to set up.

If you want to check ours out for an example, it's http://www.facebook.com/bluecreekchristmas.

In short - don't worry about your location. Build it and they will come.

Aaron

[Bob Hall]

Where in PA are you? I'm sure if there are any LOR members semi-local to you they would love to check your place out.

[Mark h2o]

Ya you just worry about building it. The cars will come. I live at the end of a cul de sac too, I do no advertising and now have been having to do traffic control a few nights a week. It took a few years for it to happen but it's there now.
Be careful what you wish for, it just may happen!

Good luck and Merry Christmas

[kckomer2]

It's worth it - we too live on a dead end street in rural Alabama. It is our 2nd year and we have met neighbors we never met before (lived here 8 years). Would not trade the experience for anything! We were on Fox 6 News this week . . .

Build it - they will come.

Here is this year's display:

http://player.vimeo.com/video/33184012?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0"

[beeiilll]

Well I live on a dead end road that has a county garage next door to me and the town cemetary is across the road from my house.
The town I live in has about 850 to 900 residents here in the winter and the closest town to us is 25 miles away.

Needless to say it is a VERY quiet town in the winter.

I have had most of the townspeople come up to me and tell me how glad that they are that I did the display this year. I didn't do it last year and believe me I heard all about that as well - LOL.
Everyone who knows who I am stops and says Merry Christmas and Thank You so much for doing the lights.

This year I am having probably a dozen cars a night (which is about 11 cars more than I expect most nights). I just was out and found a plate of cookies on the seat of my truck.

So no I guess it is not worth it all !!!!!

YEA - RIGHT.

Do it for yourself if you think that it doesn't matter to anyone else.
In a year or two (once people find out about it) you won't be able to NOT do it!
It really does have a magicaly effect on people to brighten up spirits and provide some uniqueness and fun for the holidays. Not only for them but for yourself as well.
I am in terrible conditon with bills, lack of work, health issues, and depression to top it off.
This has made things a little more bearable for me this season and helped me to keep my sanity.

I'm not a people person at all but I find that I want to go out and hand out candy canes to people at night who come to see the lights. I'm also not a really good sequencer or show producer at this either but it doesn't matter.
The spirit of it and the season helps to make it what it is and that is just plain good old fashioned fun!

Merry Christmas

Bill

[caniac]

goslow5 wrote:

caniac wrote: if you build it they will come.

If you build it they will come!!

Very good point

The big thing is once you start doing this, word get's out about a light show and folks will want to go see. You might only a few at first but they tell their friends and their friends tell their friends.

We have folks that start driving out of there way home from work in mid November so they can see what we are doing and how soon it will be up. Our neighbor's two year old takes inventory of all the items in the yard and knows when something new has been added. When we started this we figured if we only made a couple kids smile then it was worth it but it has been a positive influence on many more than that.

[rwertz]

I live on a dead end road (in PA ). If you want fame, glory and a mile long line to see your display, you might want to move to a big city. But if you’re doing it for yourself and hope others will eventually see it, you’ll be fine.

Take advantage of the fact that you can learn things without a line of cars out there. Work on your sequences, get to know everything. Share it with your friends and coworkers and see how it goes. If you still have nothing after a couple years you can pursue the media. But like others have said, be careful what you wish for.

There are other lower impact ways of getting the word out too. Create a profile on Tacky Light Tour. Post a picture of your lights with a description on your local newspaper web site. Post a flyer on some bulletin boards (work, hardware store, laundromat).