Christmas Spectacular On Webster

What does it take to make Christmas spectacular at the Brunner house on Webster Drive? 50,000 lights, a mile-and-a-half of wire and 11 months of planning.

For Denise Brunner, Christmas is always on her mind. "I'll start planning and ordering for next Christmas in about two weeks," she said. That's how much forethought goes into decorating the exterior of her home every year for Christmas. 

Christmas has always been one of Brunner's favorite holidays, and her all-out decorating began about 30 years ago when she first started making her own animated Santas to display in her front yard. Encouraged by the positive reaction that her neighbors had to her displays, Brunner decided to take it up a notch and the next year she built an animated "yule log" using a fireplace and a television set that projected the image of the iconic burning log. In the years following she built elf houses complete with a moving assembly line of toys. 

That all came to a crashing halt (literally) when a car purposefully drove through her display approximately ten years ago destroying everything. Brunner said that the car drove across her neighbor's driveway and raced through her yard smashing everything in its path. That event did more than just damage her displays, it also damaged Brunner's enthusiasm and for the five years that followed, she basically did nothing.

Until one day she stumbled across a website for Holdman Christmas Lights, began a correspondence with the owner, and "got back in the game."

Since then, Christmas on Webster has become a town tradition with a seemingly endless stream of visitors driving or walking by, pausing for pictures or to just marvel at it all.

This year Brunner has ambitiously doubled her display adding more lights, more music and more animation. It has posed "quite a few technical problems" that Brunner has had to contend with, but she says, "I love a good challenge." 

Some of the additions include Santa and his reindeer perched on the roof and two large trees, one of which contains 6400 lights. For all of the technical problems, Brunner still smiles and says, "Live and learn."

The entire display of lights is synchronized to move and flash to holiday music. To accomplish this, Brunner explained, she spends countless hours on the computer because for every minute of music there is approximately four hours of computer time that goes into it. "I listen to the music, listen to the beat and coordinate how it will play with each strand of blinking lights."

Already planning for next year, Brunner shared that she's working on an animated character, Mr. Winter, that will be very similar to the animatronics used in Disney World. She is also adding more lights to the tree, and she's working on a digital tree that will display over 1,000 colors.

To create a display like this every year, Brunner starts laying it out in her yard around mid-October, but all the hard work is worth it. "I love looking out the window and seeing kids faces plastered against car windows with huge smiles on them," she said. 

This year, for the first time, the Brunners will be offering hot chocolate to everyone who stops by to see their display this Friday at 7:30 p.m. They wanted to do something special to add to the spirit of the season and bring the town together. "Sharing the holiday spirit is what Christmas is all about," she said. 

Adding, "I'm giving families memories that will last a lifetime."

And in return Brunner's neighbors have entered her into Patch's Deck the House contest.