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Welcome to Christmas in the O. C.
Christmas in the O. C. will be sponsoring the Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) of Texas this year! Our effort to raise awareness and supplies for the SPCA is by no means a requirement to experience Christmas in the O.C. However, if donating an unopened can of dog or cat food or any of the other supplies on SPCA’s wish list is something that you want to do - we, and the SPCA, will be very thankful! At Christmastime, it is human nature to do what we can to support those in need, however, groups like the SPCA usually aren’t the recipients of our holiday cheer! Check back for more details regarding our effort to support the SPCA of Texas, but most importantly, we want you to have a most joyful of holidays. Christmas in the O.C. is our gift to you!
Christmas in the O. C. was selected by D-Light Designs as the winner of their "D-Light the World 2008" Contest (64 Channels or Less). You can view our entry here!
Check out Advocate Magazine’s recent blog that mentions Christmas in the O.C.. To read the story, click here.
Important Announcements to Visitors and Limo Drivers!
Since we live on a street without an outlet, we suggest that you keep this in mind when you visit - especially limo drivers. Wright splits Montreal Avenue at the train station, so our street does not have a dedicated outlet on Wright. In addition, we advise all visitors to please use caution when using our or our neighbors’ driveways. Some driveways have a slight dip which can be unexpected.
We have been told by other limo drivers that the best thing to do is park on Wright and see the lights - for those who do not want to get out of the limo, the music can be heard from the car and for those who want to walk to the display (4 houses away) can do so and still hear the music from the speakers.
Visit as many times as you like...and bring friends!
We love having you visit the display, but we do ask that you please be courteous to our neighbors by not parking or blocking their driveways. In addition, please allow a lane of traffic to pass by not blocking the street - our neighbors have seen our display and we do not want them to be experience frustration trying to get to their house. And, most importantly, please pay attention to those around you - a fender bender would really put a damper on the holiday spirit! To aid in differentiating between visitors and neighbors, we ask that you turn your lights off and turn on your flashers if you are driving slow or parked - also, if any of our neighbors ask you to move your car, please do so and if you get upset, please come and yell at me, not them!!! And, if you plan to stay for a while, which is just fine with us, we encourage you to park a couple of houses down, but not in driveways.
Take the Train!
A growing number of visitors are taking the train to visit us - we are less than a block away from the Hampton rail station. Please click here from more information about the Hampton Station and see the train schedule.
Monetary Donations
If you would like to make monetary donations to the SPCA and we are not outside visiting, please knock on our door or place your donation in our mail slot which is to the right of our door. Please only place Wish List items in the gray bin located in our driveway. If the bin is full, please place your donation beside the bin - we try to check on the bin and collect items as the bin fills up!
Special Thanks!
Thanks for visiting Christmas in the O. C. Wow, the lights are on and what an awesome response we have had! We have been so fortunate that the local media has embraced us and spread the word about our display and our efforts to raise money and wish list items for the SPCA of Texas. Special thanks to the Town-Mall.net, Dallas Morning News, Oak Cliff People, The Advocate, Oak Cliff Online, Mix 102.9, examiner, and countless facebook pages.
And, extra special thanks to our friends and neighbors who have been so great in helping us get this show up and running (living by us takes a great deal of patience and holiday spirit and we are so lucky to have their support!). Also, thanks to the repeat visitors and for spreading the word about the display and our efforts to support the SPCA of Texas! Your kindness and generosity has been so wonderful!!! If we are outside, don’t be afraid to say hi! We love sharing the lights with you and invite you to visit as many times as you want!
The planning and preparation, soldering and sequencing, display and design layout, controller and plug labelling, and improving all of the various elements has been so worth it! As some have pointed out, we ran into a couple of challenges getting up and running, but we would do it all over again in a heartbeat! Last year, we were new to all of this and we are still very much learning how all of this works - by no means are we lighting professionals or electricians. This year, we are controlling over 500 individual channels of light via computer (including DMX, D-Light Fireflies, AC and DC light control, LED Snow Tubes, EL Wire, as well as DIY display elements).
We sure hope that our display puts a smile on your face and we also hope that we can put a smile on some of the faces at the SPCA of Texas this holiday season.
Why the SPCA of Texas?
A little over 5 years ago, we adopted McKinney, our labradoodle from the McKinney SPCA (guess where we got his name?) You will probably be able to look in the window and if the blinds are open, he will definitely be a permanent fixture in the window - he is the most wonderful dog in the world and without the SPCA of Texas, we would never have been so lucky to have him and who knows what would have happened to him without them!
Interested in animating your display?
For those of you interested in animating your own holiday display, we will answer any of your questions while you are here. We try to spend as much time with visitors as possible and we still have plans to update that blog that we have been promising which will provide insight into the hobby.
Before we installed the display this year, we attempted to take as many photos of the setup as possible to give you an idea of what is required to do something like this...hopefully, after the holidays are over and we have decompressed, we will begin describing the efforts that went into this years display.
Also, we will continue answering the questions we receive about the elements in our display and will even post some “how-tos’” so that you can get jump start your projects.
