Mr. Christmas Lights and Sounds

In 2005, the world was charmed by a video called the Christmas Lights Gone Wild, in which Carson Williams loaded his house with Christmas lights and programmed them to flash in sync with music, specifically "Wizards in Winter" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Williams spent two months and over $10,000 to create the spectacle. It wasn't the first such display, but the video stormed the internet and impressed many who had never seen such a thing.

Since then, many people have tried to do the same, whether by programming a computer system themselves, or by hiring a professional company. One is time-consuming, the other expensive. So of course, someone had to come up with a way to make it easier for the rest of us. Mr. Christmas Lights and Sounds of Christmas by GE is a gadget that will program your lights for you. It has six electrical outlets in which to plug your lights, a stake to anchor the gadget into the ground, and a controller that has twenty songs to which it will synchronize your lights. You can set the controller to "multiplex", which means the six outlets will be powered on or off independently according to the beat of the music. Your other options are "unison" in which all your lights will flash off and on together, or "steady on" where the lights stay on regardless of the music. Yeah, that's simple, but if you want to go ahead and computerize your Christmas lights to play 150 songs, you're looking at a much more complicated and expensive venture.

The music is a bit cheesy, and the quality of the light display is up to you. However, the odds are that no one on your block is doing anything nearly as interesting with their Christmas lights. Mr. Christmas costs around 90 to 95 dollars, available through Amazon and possibly your local hardware store or gift shop.