December 21 2009

Welcome to a Providence Christmas!


1212lightla

The first thing you will probably notice is the name change! If you’re familiar with our display, then you will recognize our former name ‘Vaderville’. For more on the name change, please see About Providence Christmas.

Our display has grown bigger and better every year and now encompasses four neighboring homes all synchronized to unique arrangements of classic holiday tunes. This is our fourth year of running a computer controlled light show and we’ve nearly doubled the size of the show once again for 2009. This year our display will include over 70,000 lights, 60 strobe lights, a few virtual snow machines, a virtual Santa Claus, red and green flood backdrops, a 20′ ‘mega tree’, video synchronization, and a couple of very cool LED scanners and other special effects. Oh yeah, and don’t forget that Santa will make live appearances as we get closer to the big day!

With 128 channels of animation, a couple hundred feet of cat5 and a couple wireless networking devices to get the signal to the house across the street – this will be fantastic!

The show is synchronized to a variety of unique holiday tunes and can be heard by tuning your car stereo to 107.3 FM.

Happy Holidays!

November 11 2008

2008 Vaderville Extreme Christmas Light Show to Debut November 28th

Choreographed Multi-Home Display Includes Over 40,000 Lights, Virtual Santa, Special Effects and More – benefiting the Hilltop Church HOPE BANK.

Providence Village, Texas (October 1, 2008) – Light show designer and Vaderville creator Darren Vader today announced that the debut light show of the 2008 holiday season will take place at 6pm on Friday, November 28th.

The Vaderville synchronized light show is made up of three neighboring houses pulsating in sync with more than 40,000 lights and special effects running on 80 computer controlled channels of animation. Highlights include a virtual Santa (who makes live appearances on weekends closer to Christmas), dozens of strobe lights, virtual snow machines, and animated video clips– all synchronized to a play list of unique versions of classic holiday songs being broadcast over an FM transmitter at 107.3fm on the dial.

Vader and his neighbors have been hard at work on their 2008 show since early March. “The technology that drives a show like ours is very cool, but it’s only a small part of the preparation equation. Every beat of every song is manually assigned to a position within a sequence, video is edited, layouts are created, props are built, and prototypes are tested. We spend about eight to nine months preparing for the 35 days or so that the show will run.”

“Our annual Christmas light show is the most important thing we do all year long. Our strong belief in ‘paying it forward’ is facilitated to a great degree by the absolute joy we see every night on the faces of visitors young and old alike,” said Vader. “This year we are partnering with Firehouse Christmas Lighting and the Hilltop Church HOPE BANK to collect donations of clothing and non-perishable food items that will help some local families have a brighter holiday.”

Vaderville is located off Highway 380 just east of Denton at 1441 Providence Blvd., Providence Village, Texas, 76227. Show times are Sunday – Thursday, 6pm-10pm and weekends from 6pm-11pm; weather permitting. This is a residential display, so admission is free. If you enjoy the display, please consider making a donation of non-perishable food items or clothing to the HOPE BANK. Donations can be placed in the collection bin at the front of the display. See www.vaderville.com for more information.

About Vaderville
Vaderville was created by Darren Vader as a unique way to merge his interest in technology and music with his love of Christmas. Much to his surprise, it quickly became the talk of the town and a new tradition for a growing number of families each year. Vader takes pride in knowing that his passion is providing joy for all who witness his creation, and that the hard work allows Vaderville to give back to the community through its work with the Hilltop Church HOPE BANK. Visit www.vaderville.com for more information.

About the Hilltop Church HOPE BANK

The HOPE (helping other people every day) BANK was established in 2002 by Hilltop Church in Aubrey, Texas to provide food and clothing to those in need during times of crisis or hardship. Visit www.hilltopassembly.com for more information.

About Firehouse Christmas Lighting
Firehouse Christmas lighting provides professional lighting design and installation. From elegant static light displays to animated computer controlled light displays like Vaderville, Firehouse Christmas Lighting offers flexible options to meet any budget. Visit www.firehousechristmaslighting.com for more information.

August 26 2008

2008 Christmas Light Show Planning is Well Under Way

So many people I talked to this time of year tend to just stare at me in disbelief when I start rambling about my grand plans for this years synchronized Christmas light show. It usually takes me a few minutes to realize that the person I’m talking to has no interest whatsoever in what I’m saying. They also tend to be the same folks who are the most absolutely blown away with the light show once it’s up and running. And THIS is exactly why I love what I do!

This years show continues to grow. At this point it looks like we may be about three times the size of last year, which was three times the size of the year before. We’ll have three houses in a row synchronized to nine modern variations of popular Christmas tunes.

The challenge of coordinating this type of synchronization is part of what makes it so much fun – and so gratifying in the end. We’ll be running 80 channels of animation this year and have added some new lighting effects and synchronized video.

Most importantly we have settled on a charity to sponsor this year. We will be accepting donations of clothing and non-perishable food items for a local food bank that will truly benefit from our ‘pay-it-forward’ approach. We’ll make an official announcement soon.

So, we’re running around like crazy – have been all summer – preping the songs, the sequences, the videos, the light layouts and more. Still lots and lots to do before November 28th!

January 02 2008

Welcome to 2008!

First We want to thank everyone who came by and enjoyed the show this year – especially those who were able to contribute to the North Texas Food Bank – we’re in the final stages of calculating the final tally, but it will be sizable donation on behalf of our community!

We also want to thank the members of the media who took the time to tell our story this year including WFAA News 8, KERA 90.1 FM, WBAP 820, The Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star Telegram, 380 Guide Magazine and Friscoonline.com.

We’re already planning for next year and will have a few surprises and an even larger display!

We started dismantling the display tonight – but first I wanted to test each circuit to see what my AMP draw has actually been at 1441 (not sure what Dave’s was at 1451) – to my surprise I had one circuit maxing out at almost 17 AMPs on a 15 amp circuit – ooops. The total load this year was 40.25 AMPS. Just enough that in order to add more lights next year I’ll need to rethink my power resources!

We need… more…. POWER!

Happy New Year Everyone!

December 26 2007

Vaderville Video Passes 227,000 Views!

As I reported on December 14 – one of my videos from last years display (Transiberian Orchestra Mad Russian) had about 17,000 views as of November 27. By December 14 it surpassed the 100,000 mark and as of about 5 minutes ago stands at 227,731 views. That’s over 10,000 viewers per day; more each day than I had in all of the first 11 months of 2007 combined!

Gotta love viral marketing!

Take a look for yourself here: http://vaderfamily.info/christmas-2006/20/ 



Listen to Providence Christmas Radio:

Showtimes, Maps & Directions

1430-1451 Providence Blvd.
Providence Village, Texas 76227
info@vaderville.com


Show Starts Friday, November 27th and Ends at Midnight January 1, 2010!
Sun-Thurs 6pm-10pm | Fri-Sat 6pm-11pm

Tune Your Car Stereo to 107.3 FM

Click here for Google maps.



Benefiting The Hope Food Bank

We are an official drop point for the Hilltop Church Hope Food Bank in Aubrey, Texas. The Hope Food Bank provides food and clothing for those in need during times of hardship or crisis. If you enjoy our display, please consider donating non-perishable food items that will help make some local family holidays a little brighter. Donations can be placed in the red drop box near the street in front of the display.


Stay Up-to-Date!

Subscribe to our newsletter and receive updates on all things Christmas and extreme Christmas light show related!