Bayville Family Puts On Hour-Long Holiday Light Show

BERKELEY, NJ — Putting up Christmas lights is a holiday tradition for many families, but one home in Bayville has taken it to the next level.

Cars drive by 11 North Island Rd. each night, tuning in to 87.9 on the radio to hear songs play in-sync with its flashing lights and see holiday characters dance across the home. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” are among the 17 songs that play each night, along with popular songs from “Frozen,” “Aladdin” and “Cars.”

Ryan Koenig has organized pixelated holiday light shows at his home for several years. The hour-long show of lights and graphics takes countless hours to organize, according to Koenig.

“My kids absolutely love it and kids in the neighborhood come by. They stop and sit there singing to the songs. I enjoy doing it for everybody,” Koenig said. “I get people who sit in the back of their truck or some people hang out in the road and sing. Sometimes there’s one car. Sometimes there’s like 10 cars. Throughout the whole night cars are coming.”

Koenig is part of an online xLights community and exchanges ideas with other holiday light enthusiasts around the country through Zoom meetings. xLights is a digital program for sequencing LED pixels and lights to music.

“I bang my head against the computer most nights figuring it out because you can’t just plug it in," Koenig said. "Everything has to be programmed through my computer. It’s a lot to learn."

This year Koenig built a new computer after his old one started to lag during shows last year. At showtime, the computer sends signals to the three light controllers outside his home.

“My laptop wasn’t keeping up with the show because I had too many lights. This year I built a brand new computer that has a lot more speed to push everything,” he said.

This week Koenig added several new songs into the rotation to change up the show for the last half of December.

The show’s Facebook page, Koenig's Family Christmas Light Spectacular, features videos and updates about the show. Koenig said the show will run daily from about 5 to 11 p.m. until New Year’s Day.

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