Frequently Asked Questions

We open two days before Thanksgiving — Tuesday, November 24, 2026 this season — and run every night through New Year’s Day, Friday, January 1, 2027. The show is on nightly from 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM.

We are at 6656 Devon Drive, Liberty Township, OH 45044, about 25 minutes north of downtown Cincinnati, just off the Liberty Way exit of I-75.

Nothing. The display is completely free and there is no ticket or reservation. We do collect non-perishable food, grocery gift cards, or cash for local food banks in partnership with the Southwest Ohio Valley Women's Club, but donating is never required.

Two ways. From your car, tune the radio to 106.7 FM — the frequency is also shown on the information sign above the garage. It is a low-power transmitter by design, so the signal only carries a few hundred feet; if you are not picking it up, move closer to the house. If you would rather get out and walk around, we also run outdoor speakers at the display, so you do not need a radio at all.

A few vehicles — newer Lexus and Cadillac models in particular — buffer the analog FM signal, which causes a noticeable delay. Some of those radios have a “live mode” option; turning it on fixes it. If you see one of us outside, ask — we usually have a portable radio in a pocket you can borrow.

Songs play back to back continuously, so there is no set showtime to arrive for. The full playlist is currently 73 minutes of music across 28 songs. Most visitors stay for three to five songs, but you are very welcome to settle in for the whole thing.

Yes. Most visitors watch from the street with the radio on, and that is the warmest way to do it. You are also welcome to get out and walk around — our outdoor speakers mean you can still hear the show away from your car.

Yes. The tunnel is open to walk through, and there are buttons inside that let you change what it does. Visitors pressed them 39,661 times last season. If you get a good photo in there, we would love to see it — share it with us on Facebook.

Yes. From your phone, open vote-now.org to vote for the next song and choose which snowmen appear in the display.

Text your first name to the number shown on the information sign and it will appear on the grid. Names are checked against a database of common first names, so an unusual spelling may take longer to appear. Names show below the clock within seconds and in the main display every 8–12 minutes, depending on the size of the queue. See how it works.

Please do not park directly in front of the traffic cones — they keep the lane clear. To watch from your car, park on the opposite side of the street from the house, or along Stonington Drive, which gives the best viewing distance from inside a car. If you would rather get out and walk around the display, park further up Devon Drive to stay clear of the traffic watching from their cars. Wherever you end up, please be considerate of our neighbors: do not block driveways, keep headlights and music down, and take your trash with you. Their patience is the only reason we have been able to keep this going.

Traffic is generally lightest on school nights, and quietest between 5:00 and 6:30 or 10:00 and 11:00. It gets heavier the closer you get to Christmas, and Christmas Eve is always very busy — that is the night the neighborhood gathers to watch the countdown clock hit zero. On the heaviest nights we switch to a shorter playlist to keep traffic moving.

Yes — for local food banks, not for us. There is a donation booth to the left of the display, open every night the show is on, that accepts non-perishable food, grocery gift cards, or cash. You can also give online through Venmo (Verna is the treasurer). See how much visitors have given.

We take two weeks off work in November to bring everything outside, mount it, and wire it together. In truth we work on the display year round — updating songs, building new elements, soldering, repairing, and configuring controllers.

It varies. The most complex songs take roughly an hour of sequencing for every 10 seconds of music — 20 to 24 hours for a four-minute song. There is a computer in our living room year round so any family member can sequence while relaxing.

The impact on our electric bill is relatively small since everything is LED — the yearly stats list the exact figure for each season. As for the electronics and hardware built up over the years, let us just say we could have bought a very nice new mini-van instead.

Our neighbors have been remarkably supportive over the years. Polite visitors are the single biggest reason we are able to keep the tradition going.

No. The inside is rather tame — the Christmas tree is mostly static lighting.

Our unfinished basement fills up with about fifty 27-gallon storage containers plus a wall of custom shelving for the small trees and yard stars. The larger items take up half the garage.

Every bulb is an individually addressable RGB pixel driven over E1.31 (sACN) by pixel controllers, sequenced in xLights and played back by FPP. The technology section walks through each piece.