AUBURN After dark, theres something magical about Jamie and Karen Loggins yard on Vista Drive.
Some 100,000 lights flash on and off, changing color in a dazzling array to the beat of music playing on your radio.
As you head up Vista Drive the Loggins house is impossible to miss after dark youll see a Tune to Christmas radio FM 88.1 sign.
When you tune in, youll hear one of five Christmas songs: Decorations, a parody of the Beach Boys Good Vibrations; Elvis Presleys White Christmas; Trans-Siberian Orchestras Christmas Eve Sarajevo; Snoopy vs. the Red Baron; and The Grinch.
A series of tall arches lining the driveway will flash from green to red to blue to white to multi-colors in less than a second, in rhythm to each song.
| If you go: Be considerate of Vista Drive residents. Proceed up Vista Drive in Auburn (off Park Avenue near the Park Avenue Elementary School), pass the house and continue driving to the cul-de-sac, which will turn you around. Stop and watch on the same side of the street that the house is on. That will give you a better view and better radio reception, and will help with traffic flow. Pull to the side and keep the road clear for passing cars. Dim your lights to avoid ruining the light show for others. Tune your radio to FM 88.1 to hear the music. Consider carpooling with others to minimize traffic. Showtimes are 4:30 to 10 p.m. weekdays; 4:30 to 11 p.m. weekends. Light show continues until Jan. 1. |
A 20-foot Christmas tree made of lights and windows on the house change color too, so fast that the windows seem to move. Theres a kind of fireworks display on the chimney, along with lighted trees, deer and candy canes in the yard.
When The Grinch plays, the green guy himself appears as a lighted blow-up.
During the Snoopy song, red and green blinking lights dominate while white lights shine on the cartoon dog and his house. The Red Barons plane, its propellers spinning, arent far in the background.
Decorating doctor
The display was created by Jamie Loggins, 36, a surgeon at Central Maine Medical Center. He and his wife moved here in August from California. Before that they lived in Wisconsin.
Growing up in the Midwest, Loggins liked computers and electronics. It was common for entire neighborhoods to celebrate Christmas by decking out their houses.
He put up his first big light display four years ago. The next year he added music. Last year he did a light show in California.
He has a team that makes his display possible: his wife, his mother, and his father, who makes wooden creations.
A Rent It bucket lifter sits in his drive. He used that to shape his 20-foot tree.
Loggins starts with wood or steel frames of shapes and figures. The team strings lights around the shapes. Every light strand is plugged into its own plug, a total of 256, Loggins said. Each one is controlled, one box at a time, whether its on or off.
To choreograph his light show, he uses basic exterior illumination computer software. He uses kits that use low-voltage computer power to control high-voltage home power.
He also built a low-powered FM transmitter that broadcasts music played on his computer. In creating the light show, he has to figure out which lights go to which music. Its like composing, he said.
He works year-round on the display. When he takes it down in January he tests the bulbs. In the spring hes thinking about what he wants for his next masterpiece. In the summer he starts building frames.
Unfortunately, weve spent the last three Christmases in three states, which has made it hard for him to build momentum. Weve had to start anew. Were hoping to be here for a while and build on what weve started.
Loggins said hes excited about how his display looks, and hes excited about future light shows.
He does have one big worry: traffic.
Were hoping people arent imposing on our neighbors too much, he said. He hopes visitors will be courteous, pull off to the side and not block the road.
The display is his Christmas gift to the community.
Christmas has the potential to bring out the humanity in people, Loggins said. Oftentimes, they just need a catalyst to do that.
Loggins grew up loving Christmas. He remembers visiting big houses, all lit up.
You leave a place like that feeling different from when you got there, he said. You feel happier, lighter. It just charges the season right into you.
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