Advent Day 10: Xmas Lights

(Yup, I skipped day 8 and 9. I always seem to be a bit behind.)

One of the things I love about this time of year are the lights, lights, lights.
It's not the same looking at little images online, but the upside is that some of the big online light displays are helping collect money for charity. Here are a few examples:

• Alek Komarnitsky became known for his "web-controlled" Christmas light display in 2004. It turned out, that was a hoax. This year he claims his light display is real. Just go to his web site, and you can turn off and on sets of the lights, or inflate or deflate big Santa or Frosty decorations. He is also raising money for the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research. He's already collected more than $5,000 this year.

• Visit Lindsay Lights to see a big home light display in Ontario, Canada. You can watch a video of how they set up the more than 70,000 lights, or view them by webcam. They also collect donations for local charities. Over the past four seasons, they have donated more than $23,000 to organizations such as the Toronto Humane Society, Princess Margaret Hospital and the SickKids Foundation.

• In previous years, engineer Carson Williams produced a big home light display synchronized to music. The traffic eventually got out of hand, so this year he instead designed the Christmas in Lights display in his hometown of Mason, Ohio. Be sure to watch the video - it's pretty amazing. (But, honestly, I'm glad he wasn't my next door neighbor.)

Williams doesn't collect for charity, but I'm sure there are many worthy organizations in your home town that would welcome a donation. Why not donate simply in the spirit of the season?

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Comments

Anonymous said…
I think I'd rather donate to people not wasting energy.

Bah humbug. ;)

Good post, Peggy, thanks for reminding me to donate to charity - I've been slack this year.