1996
Location: My parent's house in Deltaville
Lights: ~700
Control Device: Plug in the extension cord
Light Usage: 100% Incandescent
Amps Drawn: ~2
Breakers Thrown: 1 or 2?
Setup Time: 4-6 Hours
It all began over the Christmas of 1996. I'd seen Chevy Chase's "Christmas Vacation' for about the 80th time, and my parents and I had just returned home from our annual drive to Richmond to take the Tacky Light Tour of all the houses in the west end decked out in lights. I was 12 years old. And I decided I wanted my own tacky light display.
I started with 6 or 7 old 100-light strands that were left over and unused from the family Christmas tree. The platform: the waterfront side of the house. I did the balcony & door, living room window, and some really cruddy looking stuff on the deck railing. With Dad's assistance (he's lent a hand every year), I ventured onto the roof and outlined it with a set of lights in motion, and used 2 sets of C7 lights to attempt to spell out "NOEL". I was one happy 12 year old.
Mom and Dad were just as excited I was. They probably thought it was going to be a one year thing.
Boy were they wrong.
Screen capture of a VHS tape of the 1996 lights - the only imagery of the first display.
1997
Location: My parent's house in Deltaville
Lights: ~1,300
Control Device: Plug in the extension cord
Light Usage: 100% Incandescent
Amps Drawn: ~4
Breakers Thrown: 2 or 3...
Setup Time: A weekend
In 1997, the display roughly doubled to about 1,300 lights. Instead of just the center roofline of the house, I did the entire roofline, and draped all the windows on the back of the house.
In the photo for this display, you can see the two oldest elements of the display still in use today making their first appearance: The Frosty snowman blowmold at bottom right, and the small santa blowmold that now lives in the boat fishing the pond of lights, sitting atop the balcony.
Screen capture of the 1997 display from a home VHS video.
1998
Location: My parent's house in Deltaville
Lights: ~2,500
Control Device: Electric switch
Light Usage: 100% Incandescent
Amps Drawn: ~7
Breakers Thrown: 3 or 4...
Setup Time: 2-3 Days
The 1998 display wasn't all that different than the 1997 lights, it was just brighter. I thickened the lights everywhere they were before, and added a few specialty sets to various locations. This may have been the first year I created a small "path" in the yard to walk through.
I have never located any photos of the 1998 display.
1999
Location: My parent's house in Deltaville
Lights: ~5,000
Control Device: Electric switch
Light Usage: 100% Incandescent
Amps Drawn: ~15
Breakers Thrown: 4 or 5...
Setup Time: 2-3 days
The display more than doubled to over 5,000 lights in 1999, and I began to decorate things other than the house. The dogwood tree (see 2003) was first lit this year, and most notably, the old 12 foot skiff first became part of the light display this year (the same one that is a fixture of the pond scene in today's display).
I have never located any photos of the 1999 display
2000
Location: My parent's house in Deltaville
Lights: 12,568
Control Device: Plug/Unplug
Light Usage: 100% Incandescent
Amps Drawn: ~40
Breakers Thrown: 25-30...
Setup Time: 4-5 days
By the 2000 season, my family had come to love my displays as much as I did (A sign of this is when you start getting Christmas lights for your birthday in September...)
The preceding summer, a wedding was held in our yard, and I was gifted more than 5,000 white lights from that event to use for Christmas.
This was the first year that I made paths all throughout the yard and down to the dock. I lit up the bushes on the bank overlooking the water, as well as pretty much anything I could get an extension cord to.
2000 photo from the yard - Click for a gallery of photos from this year.
2001
Location: My parents house in Deltaville
Lights: 17,656
Control Device: Plug, unplug
Light Usage: 100% Incandescent
Amps Drawn: ~60
Breakers Thrown: 50-60... (I really started learning how to mitigate this after this year)
Setup Time: 4-5 days
2001 was an expansion of the 2000 display, with the general layout remaining the same but with some new and improved elements.
The pine tree on the bank grew too large to decorate, so we build the first "PVC pole tree" on the hillside, and added a waterfall of lights coming down to the creek. Several wireframe character faces were added to trees throughout the woods as well.
At this point, I was a 17 year old junior in high school, and I really wanted more people to see the light display. Jump ahead to 2002 to see what happened next :)
2001 photo from across the creek - Click for a gallery of phots from this year
Click to take a look back at the evolution of the display
The Early Years (1996-2003)
It's Gotten Out Of Hand... (2013-Present)
The Move Into Town (2004-2012)
The display's humble beginnings trace back to a weekend in 1996. I was 12 years old.
"I thought it was a phase..." -My Dad
The Move Into Town (2004-2012)
It's Gotten Out Of Hand... (2013-Present)
The Move Into Town (2004-2012)
My family's house was in the woods, down a 1,500 foot driveway. I decided I really wanted people to see the lights, so the display moved to a vacant lot beside the family business.
It's Gotten Out Of Hand... (2013-Present)
It's Gotten Out Of Hand... (2013-Present)
It's Gotten Out Of Hand... (2013-Present)
What was once I drive-by display you watched from the road turned into a walk-through, immersive and interactive experience, starting in 2013.
Deltaville Lights is BACK for 2024!
We're in "Soft Open" mode December 1-6, and hope to be FULLY lit for Saturday, December 7th!