Howdy neighbor,

If you've lived in the Kiwanis Park neighborhood for a while, you may have noticed my Christmas light display getting smaller over the past few years. The light display has been in a state of transition for the past four years and will continue to be in transition for another year or two as I continue to make some significant upgrades to the display. As the older incandescent lights (string lights, bush net lights, and rope lights) have been failing, I have been transitioning them to all LED lights. As of 2015 all display lights (over 2600 lights) were LED. Unfortunately, many of the LED lights have only been lasting for one or two holiday seasons before failing. This is the primary reason the light display has been smaller in recent years. This year (2019) there will only be 1200 lights, but the display will serve as a good test of the new light controllers before I expand it with more controllers and better quality LED lights over the next couple of years.

As part of the transition for 2019, I have added this website to give out the schedules and song playlists for the holiday light displays and to share any news relating to the holiday light displays. Also new for 2019, you may have noticed lights were put up for Halloween and synchronized to some Halloween music. This gave me the opportunity to do some early testing with some of the new items added for the 2019 transition, including new light controllers, new pixel bulb light strings, new software that controls the display, and an FM transmitter to transmit the music to be heard by FM radio. The plan going forward is to expand the light display to include Halloween, add more LED lights, add more Halloween and Christmas props, and add more music.

That's all I have for this update. The 2019 Christmas lights schedule and playlist will be available soon.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to chat with me (Jason) if you see me outside at 1628 W. Pershing St (Appleton, Wisconsin). You can also email me at jason@westpershinglights.com or my gmail address at jlverhagen@gmail.com.