Wow!
We had soooo many cars tonight. The line backed all the way out of our subdivision with wait times from 30 to 45 minutes BEFORE you got up to the display. Wonderful...and terrible for some. We had folks traveling all the way from AUBURN to come see the display! War Eagle man! Thanks sooo much for coming out tonight!

Updated Playlist
Because of the traffic, we will have to shift our playlist to a shorter list. From 7 till 10pm;
"War Eagle" - by the Auburn University Marching Band
"All I Want For Christmas"  - by Mariah Carey
"I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day" - by Casting Crowns


Times
Because we are trying to be "Neighbor Friendly" and considerate of our neighbors, we have found it necessary to shut the show down at 10pm. It is just too much traffic for this late at night. I am very sorry, but we do have to be considerate of our wonderful neighbors.


Toys For Tots
This is such a blessing. We received 12 presents tonight...and $231.00, just tonight!  That is fantastic for us!  This will help out so many children. Now tonight was the last night we will be taking presents, but we will take donations if you wish to give. Honestly, several people offered donations and I actually told them it was ok...just coming out tonight was enough for us. They insisted that we take the money. MANY people did this tonight. 


I choose Toys For Tots several years back to honor my father who was in the Marines. I think the Good Lord honored and blessed ME tonight by having so many good people come out tonight. I am truly blessed. Thanks so much for sharing your time with my family tonight.


Last by not least... I have two wonderful daughters who helped me tonight. It sure was nice tonight spending time with them running back and forth with traffic tonight. They knew Dad had a bad foot which didn't help in running back and forth. So not only did they wear themselves out in helping, but they are still at work in the kitchen cooking for our family gathering tomorrow. Again, truly blessed ;-)

If you have followed this blog to any extent, you know... it is sometimes hard to follow ;-) I will get right to some of the points in the title.

Playlists as of 12/21/13

Nightly - 5 to 7pm and then 9 to 10pm (more on that closing time below)
- "Christmas Vacation" - from the scene "25,000 imported twinkle lights..."
- "Blue Christmas" - Harry Connick Jr.
- "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day" - Casting Crowns
- "Christmas Don't Be Late" - Chipmunks
- "War Eagle" - Auburn University Marching Band
- "All I Want For Christmas Is You" - Mariah Carey
- " Carol Of The Bells" - Monique Danniel
- " Mad Russian" - Trans Siberian Orchestra
- "War Eagle" - Auburn University Marching Band
- "Stille Nacht" (with Linus in the "Charlie Brown Christmas Special" - Mannheim Steamroller
- "Jing,Jing,Jing" - Airmen Of Note (U.S. Air Force Jazz Band)
- "Believe In The Holiday Magic" - from the Disneyland Christmas Fireworks special
- "War Eagle" - Auburn University Marching Band


Nightly - 7 to 9pm (peak crowd times)

- "Brittney and Rachel" - my daughters giving instructions on how to watch the show without disturbing other viewers and our neighbors 
- "Christmas Vacation" - from the scene "25,000 imported twinkle lights..."
- "Mad Russian" - Trans Siberian Orchestra
- "Jing,Jing,Jing" - Airmen Of Note (U.S. Air Force Jazz Band)

- "War Eagle" - Auburn University Marching Band
- " Carol Of The Bells" - Monique Danniel
- "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day" - Casting Crowns
- "Christmas Don't Be Late" - Chipmunks
- "War Eagle" - Auburn University Marching Band
- "Blue Christmas" - Harry Connick Jr.
- "Joy To The World" - Go Fish
- "Stille Nacht" (with Linus in the "Charlie Brown Christmas Special" - Mannheim Steamroller
- "War Eagle" - Auburn University Marching Band
- "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" - Mercy Me
- "All I Want For Christmas Is You" - Mariah Carey
- "War Eagle" - Auburn University Marching Band

All playlist will loop continuously during these time periods. When that "time period" is up, it will go into the next playlist and start looping from there. 

Thank You
We have had quite a number of people come from HOURS away. Thank you sooooo much for coming out and enduring the crowds. This is why we do this display. To see people smile and to share the Christmas Spirit.  We have had a number of people drop toys off and give money towards our "Toys For Tots" drive. Thank You. Again, it is the season for sharing and that is what we are trying to do here at the Burton house. Thanks for making some little boy or girl's Christmas brighter by your donations.

Thoughts and Observations
Just as a reminder;
Please be sure and circle around the cul-de-sac when watching the show. This is even if you are the only vehicle watching. Others might pull up and copy what you are doing. Then if the line gets too long, few people can see the show. Be aware, if you stop in front of the display with the passenger side right up against the mini trees...and there are other cars across the street...well drive on around and you will see what I mean ;-)


Please, please, please do not pull up on the wrong side of the road (kind of like you are driving in England ;-). Other cars will copy. When they do, it becomes a problem with cars trying to pull forward and others who are leaving. Keep the flow of traffic going in the same direction.


I know some of you want to take videos and pictures (thrills me when you do ;-)... Be sure and stay in the cars. Keeping neighbors happy and keeping visitors SAFE is something we would like to continue doing :-) 


Be sure and watch the radio volume. Wow. Some folks have REALLY great sound systems ;-) Trying to keep my wife happy on this one. Happy wife... well you know how the rest goes ;-) REMEMBER THE RADIO STATION IS ON 102.1 FM. Several people miss the radio sign AND the messages that come up on the projector screen. 


We *May* need to shut the show down at 10pm instead of 11pm. Again, this is something we may need to do for our neighbors. We have WONDERFUL and sweet neighbors. I want to respect them as well with this.


 

So 7 days ago I posted a video of a new sequence this year. "War Eagle" is the Auburn University fight song...and being an avid Auburn fan...I have wanted to do this for YEARS. This year was different for Auburn. Their football team did a complete 180 from the previous year and BEAT Alabama in a game that will go down forever in history as the best 1 second play there ever was.  If your reading this years later... look at this video. Anyway, after hearing Rod Bramlett's call I knew not only did I need to put this into a sequence to do, I needed to hurry!  The SEC Championship was coming up the next week and if Auburn lost, it would be a bitter sweet win the week before. I did...and this is what happened....

As I type this, this is week one. We are now at 259,000 hits. I have had every news organization from across the country, every TV station in Atlanta contact me and it has gone viral all over the country. I have been told it has played on TV stations from Vegas to New York. This is very wild and very surreal. Tonight, I had cars lined up to see "War Eagle". I had to talk out all of my songs but 2...just to keep traffic moving.  I go tomorrow to go WXIA Channel 11 studios in Atlanta for a interview. I am sure it will just be a little interview, but will prove interesting just the same. So, the right place and the right time will get your video played a lot. We will see in the few days to come with the traffic...if it is worth it ;-)

I will be posting some stuff here soon. It has been so busy lately in just getting the display up and rolling (had the most time, but has taken the longest to settle in).  The elements go pretty complicated in some ways this year. I will post a pretty long post with details on getting out of the TV show (wish we hadn't now), the aches and woes of adding RGB nodes to the video projection screen (which my wife doesn't like).  It has been interesting ;-)  My Facebook page has snippets throughout the season. https://www.facebook.com/BurtonChristmasLights