Newspaper article - and the consequences!!!

[tlorek]

Several weeks ago, the Indianapolis Star had an area on their website where you could upload photos and a writeup for Christmas light displays. I put the first one up, back on 12/3 (here's the link...http://newsfromyou.indystar.com/posts/christmas-on-victory-celebration-of-lights).

Well in today's paper, almost the entire front page of the Metro section has a map and writeup of displays, with ours being one of the first mentioned. They've got an interactive map on the website showing where all the displays are: http://www.indystar.com/article/99999999/NEWS/399990487/

Fast forward to tonight. It was **PACKED**. We had a minimum of 10 cars with an average of 14-15 and at one point had over 25 parked and lined up. We were out front talking with some people around 9:00 and a neighbor, who happens to be into our display a wee bit too much, walked over. She said that she had been counting vehicles all evening, and we were up to over 350 up to that point. By the time we shut down at 10:00, we had to have been well over 400 cars. Not bad, in my mind, and probably the max I'd want to have, as things got tight at times. The wife wants to contact a television station, but I don't think I want more traffic then we had tonight.

The best news was our donation box/house was jam packed. I'm thinking I'm going to have to build a bigger one for next year! :lol:

[dirknerkle]

Tom, that's FANTASTIC! Good for you!!!

Hope on Christmas day you'll be able to spend it with family instead of our in the street directing traffic!!!

Merry Christmas, my friend!

[nofear]

Tom,

Thats great. I hope it doesn't become too much for you. We didn't contact the star or wthr or fox etc.. because we don't want to have too much traffic (atleast not yet).

Have a good one.

[jnealand]

Be careful, too much publicity can bring the good, but also the bad. Note what happened to Wayne James and others when some not so good visitors showed up who may have never even known about your display without the publicity.

[dirknerkle]

Yes, unfortunately that is the case. Everything we do in life has consequences and it's important to realize that there are both the good ones and then the bad ones.

We live in a very strange world, one in which the distance between the haves and have-nots is widening as each year goes by. The last 18 months have been extremely hard on a lot of people, so much so that their judgement and behaviour is affected. What's even worse, is that their core values may also have been damaged.

That's bad for society as a whole.

But let that not deter us! Always focus on what Christmas is all about. Relish it. Believe it. Celebrate it.

He is born!

[tlorek]

Since last weekend, donations have exploded! The number of vehicles has remained manageable, which is a *very* good thing. For the season so far, we're over $2,100 in total donations for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!!!! We're going to keep our display up until either the 2nd or 6th, depending on the weather. I think we'll be able to surpass $3k, which is far above anything I would have expected, particularly with the economy the way it is.

I'm definitely going to make a larger donation box, but in the same vein. Here's what we have today...http://www.doityourselfchristmas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8995. It's only about 6" x 10". The new one will be twice the size.

[51fordf2]

Tom - that's great! I didn't manage to get a collection box out this year, but next year I will.

Christmas Eve, I was in town, and my daughter called to tell me the lights were all on, and that there were at least a dozen cars outside, at 6:45 (the show starts at 6:30)! I don't think I had a dozen cars all together, on any night since the 1st. But, some friends came over, and told her that is was in the local Lafayette paper, under "things to do tonight", on the 24th. So she was in and out all evening, and almost all of them asked about donating. Don't know how many people ended up showing up, but I would say it was a success! I'm going through the 9th. The article also listed Chris Hoover's, "Christmas on Greenview (http://christmasongreenview.com)" in Battle Ground. His is what finally persuaded me to make the jump, with over 80,000 lights, and a really, really cool train!

Anyway, still hoping to get down that way, this next week, but not so sure - had a car accident today, that totalled my car - I'm ok, mostly, but really was a bummer.

R