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I think my wife let the genie out of the bottle


Ebuechner

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I just received a text from my wife while she's at work. It reads that the local TV station is going to be out to film or display on the 16th. If anyone else has gone through this any hints and suggestions would be welcome. Most everybody in the neighborhood tells me how great my display is and I look at it and keep on thinking that could be better. (But I think we are our own worst critics) so the genie's out of the bottle what can I expect?

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Personally?  Call them and tell them not to come :P  But I'm one of those people who doesn't like publicity.

 

Reality?  Depending on how big Madison is, how popular that station is, and just how much time they dedicate (along with giving your address) to you, I would be thinking about hiring some off duty police officers for every night starting the 16th thru end of XMas to control traffic :)

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There's a little bit of relief. It turns out it's a segment for the morning show. And there going around Madison filming many different displays. Now if I can just keep myself from playing with it and trying to tweak it all the time.

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I think I'm the only person in the city doing this sort of display. I've seen a few other people here on the forum from Wisconsin but not anywhere close to me.

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I'm trying to keep mine word of mouth only. I don't even like my wife posting on facebook to her friends. Madison is bigger than Green Bay, but I have noticed this year a lot more people decorating (no snow yet) and more people driving around to view. I usually have 1-2 cars watching. My show runs 4:30-9, everyday. The news is good and bad - It proves that you put together a decent display and people admire your work. Just don't want to upset the neighbors! Good luck.

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I live in a older subdivision. Our houses are far from being on top of each other. And our driveways are spread apart. We have really good roads coming in and going out of the neighborhood. Which is good and bad. The good would be being able to get cars through easily. The bad is my display is wide enough that you can't see it very well all from one point. In fact I'm trying to figure out how to video tape it. (Did I just date myself by saying videotape I should say record) I run my show every night from 5 to midnight. The speakers outside or on a timer and they turn off at 9:30. They're only loud enough that you would hear it from the street. We don't have any sidewalks our road is our main source for doing everything like walking the dogs kids riding bikes including a stable down the street that occasionally ride their horses through.

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I agree with the above.  While it may be too late to put this genie back in the bottle, I would work really hard to try and get them to not give any location information or you may get a response that neither you nor your neighbors expected or wanted.  Every year on this board we read about shows shutting down (sometimes for good) due to the huge crowds that showed up after news coverage. 

 

Many years ago when I lived in moderate size town in a different state and was only doing this a few years the local weekly rag... that no one reads... called and wanted to take some pictures and run a story.  I said yes.  The picture was on the front page and the story buried inside.  My ego felt great!  Two days after the story ran and for the next 2 1/2 I had two of the town's police cars out front, lights flashing, doing traffic control.  I had car accidents, angry drivers.  Luckily I had a farm across the street and no neighbors really close so I didn't have them ticked at me.

 

Lesson learned for me.  I now turn down all interview requests and cringe when a viewer posts a video of my house on Facebook.

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I think I'm the only person in the city doing this sort of display. I've seen a few other people here on the forum from Wisconsin but not anywhere close to me.

I'm one of six in my country and no news story.

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Got contacted once by one of the local news crews on one of our local channels, some other breaking news happened the evening they were supposed to come out and do the spot, they never made it.  And after reading so many of the horror stories about what has happened to others here and displays getting shut down because of traffic, I'm glad they never showed up.   Like others, I don't need to create any stress or grief for the neighbors.    The street I live on in an manufactured home community is very narrow, and is a circle, one way in and one way out, so traffic could become really gruesome for everyone in my section.

 

I'll post my address on the forums for folks that do this to come and take a look, but I'm not posting it anywhere else.    Thus far, no traffic snarls or nightmares and no agitated/angry neighbors!  Knock on wood!

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It looks like I am so lucky...

My drive way is gated and its about 1/10 mile from my house...

My neighbor on the only side of the house that can see my display is totally fence and gated in...

I do my display for my family, grand kids, nieces, nephews and their kids and the neighbors... 

Only some people down in the valley (Antelope Valley) Palmdale Ca. in certain places if they look up the mountain to the South at the right place can see part of mine... 

No one else has access to view it unless they are let in my my family or my neighbors..

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