Cranbury Christmas Lights is New Jersey’s Number One Christmas Display for Charity
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Press Release:
Cranbury Christmas Lights is located at 128 North Main Street, Cranbury NJ 08512. cranburychristmaslights.com
New Jersey and New York’s largest Christmas Tree would like you to visit! With over 47,000 lights which is more than the Rockefeller Center Tree you will be amazed at the beauty of so many lights! Cranbury Christmas Lights is one of the TOP Christmas display in the USA. It has been featured in virtually every News Organization in New Jersey and even Nationally on NBC Nightly News on Christmas Night December 25th 2014!!
The display in 2015 is like a Broadway show with over 122,000 lights dancing to the music being controlled by 4,160 Channels and 25,000 feet of extension cords! The shows play 20 nights starting November 28th through December 31st. The schedule can be found at cranburychristmaslights.com It is very important to check their website for parking information and schedules which vary from night to night. Every other night will feature a different show made up of 18 songs ranging from the traditional to the “whimsical” Christmas songs for the kids. Each year Cranbury Christmas Lights adds a new feature. For 2015 it is a 1,200 light pixel wall with will absolutely amaze the audience! This display is truly unique with our own designs including a 10,000 “Shooting Fountain of Light!” a 20 foot by 20 foot wall of snowflakes with 6,400 lights, and the lawn has over 25,000 lights on it!
The shows and parking are free (VIP Tours and parking are available information on this can be found on their website), cash donations are accepted and 100% of all donations go to local charities. Cranbury Christmas Lights is all about brining Joy to those who visit and for those who are able to help they do accept cash donations which will help to make a difference by giving back to the community in need. In 2014 they collected over $14,000 for the local food banks. A large portion of the food this pantry distributes goes to children. Within 5 miles of Cranbury Christmas Lights there are 100’s of children that go everyday without eating a meal and those that are fortunate only eat what they get in school. A good majority of the food that is donated is going to hard working “ex” middle class families where the parents have lost their jobs and homes and are now living in motels or worse yet their cars. It deeply saddens Keith’s heart with just the thought of his own kids having to endure this that is why he is so grateful to all the people who make it possible for us to do what we do.
For those who are able PLEASE give generously, for those who can’t we hope you come out for a joyful night and this Christmas Display lights up your Christmas Season!
A personal Message from Keith, founder, decorator of Cranbury Christmas Lights:
“We are a New Jersey Non Profit to benefit the local food banks and charities. This is my ninth year for Christmas Spectacular on Main Street. Having volunteered my time with many different charitable organizations most of my life (which is also how I meet my wife by volunteering for an organization and meet her at a restaurant while helping with a project) when I moved to Cranbury I saw it as a perfect place to start my own endeavor. At the time I had 2 ½ year old and a 6 month old boys so I wanted to tie it into Christmas. That October I got onto the Internet and searched for the best Christmas displays in the world. All of the displays that I came up with used a system called Light-O-Rama which makes the lights dance to the music. I had been in the wine business for 20 years at the time, did not know a thing about programming lights and music and certainly did not know how to use this system but committed myself to learning, ordered the equipment and did a lot of reading over the next 30 days. In early November I received the equipment and the program to make it all work. The next 30 days was a huge learning curve, a lot of trial and error but by December 6th I had the first song up and running. In the next 10 days I had another 5 songs done. That first year I only had 15,000 light and 32 channels controlling them to the music. It was a HUGE success, we had 1000’s of people how came to see our display. It was by the end of that December that I decided to make it bigger the next year and each year since I have added onto the display.
It was after that first year that I decided to pick a charity to support through our Christmas Display, my main focus was to target an organization that focused on kids. Having volunteered personally at many charities I know there are so many worth ones to pick from but I wanted to help kids and in a way that every days needs would be meet. I know that as wealthy as New Jersey is, there are 1000’ s of kids that go to bed every day with little or no food at all. I selected a local food bank that targets middle class families where one or both of the parents have lost their jobs or are in temporary housing. A good majority of the food this organization collects goes to kids. The organization is called “He Cares we Care”, they can be contacted at 609-799-9000 for a phone interview to get more details on what they do and how we support them.
Now into my ninth year besides my friends and neighbors who help I now have two very able volunteers to assist me. My two boys, Alexander who is 10 and Kristopher who is 8 are helping me constantly. Alexander’s favorite job is helping me test the lights. With 122,000 lights there are always missing bulbs or strings that are not working, he is very good at finding every one of those missing bulbs and fixing them! In 2014 he even programmed his own song! Kristopher’s favorite job is helping me with the 25,000 feet of extension cords and running them to the power supplies. They both also love helping me plug in the lights to the 704 power supplies and making sure they are the correct colors.”
Questions we are often asked:
- How much does your electric bill go up? – Very little, we are a 99% green Christmas display nearly all of our lights are LED. We estimate our bill going up about 160 this year.
- How long does it take you to set up your display? It is a year long event but the actual lawn setup started October 27th and was done November 15th this year.
- How do you make the music and light go together? For every song every 1/10 of a second I tell 704 sets of lights and 3456 channel on the pixel wall what to do, turn on, off, fade up or down, twinkle etc. It takes me over 30 days to program one song. Every year we add 4 brand new songs!
Watch the display HERE
