Holland's Holiday Lights

12/26/2025

After having gone through the 70 pictures from family night with the North pole characters, there are 5 families that have not confirmed that they received their picture of their visit.
Given it's possible an incorrect email address was given to us, I am posting this so they can reach out and we can get them their family picture.

12/25/2025

Tonight will be a wrap for this year's display!

We have really enjoyed getting a chance to interact with our regular visitors, along with a significant number of new visitors to the display.

Given the temperature swings we again are facing some thin, but very slippery ice. I used up the rest of our deicing salts today, and most of the blacktop is clear, but I was unable to deice the cement in front of the garage door.

Given the fact that it is roped off that will not be a problem for visitors to the display, but it will present a bit of a challenge to family members who will be joining us tonight.

On behalf of Diane and I, let me take this opportunity to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, and very happy holiday season. We look forward to seeing you again next year. :)

12/24/2025

GPS directions appear off 150 feet!

For the first time in the 45 years we have been doing our display, GPS directions have apparently contributed to a total of 3 vehicles this year (coming from North of our home) driving up our stone driveway that leads to the woods. That driveway is about 150 feet North of our actual driveway.

That stone driveway is never plowed, and the ground drops off on both sides of the stoned area which could easily cause a vehicle to get stuck.

The correct driveway is easily identified, as it has a large arch that you drive under to enter the parking area, and being blacktopped it is well maintained. We have a lit 3 foot in diameter round ornament overhanging the street in front of that driveway, and you can see our Santa shed from the street, so it is hard to miss!

12/21/2025

Important 12/.21 Weather Related Update:

Those who know me know I have complained how the unusually warm temperatures with their associated high winds followed by the cold temperatures associated with high winds which have been cycling back and forth over the last few weeks had been a challenge for a number of reasons. The fluctuations we have been seeing this season are more frequent and extreme than those I have experienced over the past 48 years that I have been decorating.

Although the roadways in the area are clear, and I have kept our driveway leading to the display clear of snow, the underlying blacktop is now a sheet of ice. My wife, with 4 new snow tires on her car had to get a running start to get up the driveway a few hours ago. We all know that no tires (whether snow or all weather) behave well on ice...

I just returned in after salting the driveway, starting a little beyond its entrance on the street, up to the start of the parking lot when I ran out. 50 plus pounds of salt, rated effective to minus 25 degrees, was used.

In light of this, since I could not salt the actual parking area, I am informing ALL visitors to remain in their cars for their safety!

Additionally if folks have ANY difficulty driving up the lower section of the driveway, that is the section from the street to the large overhead arch, please slowly back out, and do NOT attempt to drive up to the parking area as you will slide off the driveway, and get mired in the mud which is soft given the warm temperatures we have had.

12/20/2025

The roads are dry now, the snow has ended, so we will be resuming our display this evening. It will run 6 - 10pm daily through December 25th.

12/19/2025

Display off tonight due to hazardous driving conditions!
Yesterday's 50 plus degrees led to melting snow, which unfortunately has frozen and is covered with snow leading to hazardous driving conditions. Visibility is currently down to about 150 feet with blowing snow. The roads up this way are not plowed, as crews are working on the major roads. We expect to have the display on tomorrow night depending on weather conditions. If we need to cancel tomorrow I will post tomorrow afternoon.

12/14/2025

2025 Family Night with the North Pole Characters wrap-up.

The weather forecast for last night gave us some concern regarding brisk winds and blowing snow, but although it was a cold night, there was no wind, the roads were clear, and we had a very light snowfall. It turned out to be a great setting for an outside Christmas event! Had it been a little warmer it would have been a perfect night.

There was a steady flow of visitors, starting at 6:20pm, until a few minutes before 8:00pm when the event ended.

Folks came from the South as far as Arcade, from the North as far as North Tonawanda and from the Northeast as far as Rochester.

The kids kept Bruce busy, telling them jokes, and more than a few were surprised that he knew their names! There were no bubbles this year given it was a little below freezing.

All of the kids received small LED lights to take home after visiting us during this 45th year of hosting our holiday display here in Holland.

We received a few more letters to Santa that have already been addressed. My efforts now will be focused on reviewing and editing the 69 pictures that were taken of families prior to emailing them out.

For those that might not be aware, this year’s display will continue to run 6 – 10 pm through December 25th. Bruce the Spruce will still be available to chat with visitors most nights between 6 and 7pm.

As always I want to thank the volunteer team that makes this possible every year – my wife Diane who makes the hot chocolate using our “special” recipe and backs me up on my Christmas activities every year, Sandy who mans the hot chocolate table outside, Aaron and Michelle who take and log the family pictures, Addison and Andrew who are two of our characters, Kaylee who joined us this year as the third character, and Brian whose voice always entertains the kids (while he stays toasty warm inside the house!).

Diane and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the happiness this holiday season has to offer. We look forward to seeing many of you again next year.

12/12/2025

Tomorrow's Family night update

As I compose this note, it’s a sunny day in Holland with some cumulous clouds, and a temperature of 19 degrees!
The roads are clear and I expect the same for our family event tomorrow night. It will be cold, so be sure to bundle up!
Given this is our 45th year of decorating at this home we will be giving the children something extra to take home with them. Something that will light things up a bit. 😊
A couple of folks have inquired about conditions of the hill on Partridge road. The hill is kept plowed, even on weekends (although sometimes less than during the week). If you have decent all weather tires you should not have any issues, however to allay concerns there are alternative ways to visit us without going up the hill.

For those South of Holland who will be heading North on route 16, when you get into the Holland business area, at the traffic light turn left onto Holland Glenwood road. Continue on Holland Glenwood road (you will be heading West) for a few miles and then turn right onto Phiilips Road. Continue on Phillips Road (you will be heading North) a couple of miles and you will see our lights on the left side of the road.

For those South of Holland coming up from route 240, etc. connect with Holland Glenwood road and head East to Phillips road. Turn left onto Phillips road. Continue on Phillips Road (you will be heading North) a couple of miles and you will see our lights on the left side of the road.

For those North of Holland take route 20A (it becomes Main Street) into East Aurora. In East Aurora turn onto Center road (it dead ends on Main Street). Continue on Center road (you will be heading South). Shortly after you pass the channel 4 TV towers on your right you will come to an intersection with Partridge road. There is a small fire station there. Turn left onto Partridge road, and follow it for several miles. After a curve in the road you will get into a wooded area and you will see Phillips road on the right. Turn right onto Phillips road and you will see our hanging ornament on the right hand side, a few houses down the road.

We are all looking forward to seeing you tomorrow night between 6:30pm and 8:00pm!

12/11/2025

For the last several decades Hollands Holiday Lights has been receiving letters from Santa. The lists of asks from children have gradually gotten longer in many, but not all of these letters.
This season we have received letters that have suggested a change, as some children are approaching the holiday from a giving, rather than a getting perspective.
I wanted to share one with you, as it certainly boosted my faith in the inherent goodness that exists, something we don’t hear enough about in today’s news and social media postings.
I am typing the letter, to avoid any identifying information on its young author, following which you will see “Santa’s” response which was just mailed out.

Dear Santa,
Please give all my presents to homeless people, poor people and kids in the hospital.
Please and thank you –

Santa’s reply:

Dear ###X,

After reading your letter, I shared it with Mrs. Claus, and then called a meeting of the elves and read it to them.
We all knew that you have always been on the nice list. Your letter demonstrated something to us even more important about you. You see while we have many children on the nice list, only some come to understand the true meaning of Christmas, that it is not about getting, but rather giving. Giving to those less fortunate is a sign of love, which tells us you are special and wise, well beyond your years!
Santa, Mrs. Claus and the elves all work behind the scenes with groups of people that support those that are less fortunate to help ease the issues they are struggling with. Given the large number of people all over the world struggling with poverty, disease, lack of food, lack of a home, etc., we need the help of concerned groups of people as this is much too large to handle with our North Pole staff alone.
Mrs. Claus, the elves and I are extremely proud of you! We have more than enough presents this year so you can be given some you will like. Be assured what you get will not impact the number we plan to give to the groups I mentioned.
I look forward to visiting your home ###X, so be sure to go to bed early on Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas!

It was signed Love, Santa
As the saying goes, children are our future.
I hope everyone reading this has a wonderful holiday season.

11/28/2025

11/18/2025

After 6 full weeks of setup, I just finished installing the last display item today!

Given this is our 45th year of having the display at this home, I decided to take on the challenge of significantly updating and upgrading our display this year!

In addition to new elements, lighting in many of our display pieces was replaced with new pixel and RGB LED lighting.

Wooden backdrops to several of the display pieces were replaced by Lexan and painted accordingly, so those will quite literally outlast me. The most involved one was to replace the old coroflake's coroplast backing, lights and controllers, with the new Lexan backing, controllers and LEDs. (1st picture seen below).

Once completed it was covered and the coroplast cover was sealed using quite a few sticks of hot glue, (2nd picture seen below).

As I mentioned earlier out life sized nativity figures, made originally by Hamberger Display had their thin metal linkages replace by thicker steel linkages which will give them decades of further use!

Our audioanimatronic Santa unexpectedly had the motor for one of his arms fail, and thanks to my buddy Brad, a heavy duty motor became its replacement, as well as an upgrade to its entire circuitry.

Also unexpected was a failure of the sound system for our Projection mapping system, so rather than purchase another amplified speaker I fabricated a 30 watt amplifier circuit to generate great sounding audio that feeds a speaker so folks can hear the audio when they view the projection mapping videos covering the South end of our home. This audio is not broadcast over FM, as that broadcasts the main display music in stereo. I had fun mapping 4 new videos bringing the total number of our projection mapping videos to 12.

Outside of last minute testing we are ready to go!

We are looking forward to this year's display, and we hope to see many of you during our walk-in family night, Saturday, December 13th between 6:30 and 8pm. The display will continue running until 10pm that night as usual, but folks will need to go back to driving in, rather than walking in, after 8pm..