It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in a big way in LaGrangeville, NY, thanks to the Gay Family.
Something of an annual event in the neighbourhood, for the past 20 years dad Tim, along with his wife, Grace, and their three children, Emily, Daniel and John have marked the beginning of the holiday season by decorating their house with ever-more elaborate festive lighting.
The family flicked the switched on this year’s dazzling display last week in turn seeing them regain the record for "Most Lights on a Residential Property."
The Gay’s incredible display consists of 601,736 lights – and sees them take back the title they won in 2012 after losing out last year to a display created by Australia’s David Richards. (Not to be outdone, David and his family set another piece of Christmas lights history last week by taking the title for largest image made of LED lights).
The holiday light display, which spans two acres and took roughly two months to build, is set to more than 200 songs, including top-40 hits and holiday favorites. Passersby can tune into an FM frequency on their radio to hear the music while driving through the spectacular light show.
Choreographed lights for a Coldplay song used in the display took 35 hours alone to program.
The Gay family open up their property each year to allow the public to see the display, allow people to drive through their driveway, with a donation bin at the end of the display used to collect money for local charities.
For this year’s attempt, the Gay Family teamed up with RITZ Crackers , who provided a scenic holiday light installation, itself made up of nearly 200,000 lights.
"My family and I are thrilled to bring the World Record back to the United States and we're even more excited that we did it with nearly 100,000 more lights than the previous record," said Tim.
"We had no plans to attempt the record this year until RITZ Crackers – a brand my family has loved for years – contacted us and offered their support to help us break the record. We couldn't have done it without their help and contribution of nearly 200,000 lights."
"RITZ is all about celebrating everyday fun, especially during the holidays, and the Gay family has been topping their home with larger-than-life light displays for almost 20 years," said Wes Saraceni, brand manager for RITZ Crackers. "RITZ wanted to celebrate the family's holiday spirit by helping them win the World Record and what better way than with a RITZ-shaped snowman made up of lights."
