Frequently Asked Questions

• Started with 13,000 lights in 1999. Have over 85,000 lights this year.
• The front tree alone contains around 11,000 lights, wine glass contains over 3,000 lights, front garden contains over 7,000 coloured twinkling lights and language signs contain over 5,000 lights.
• Raised $112,000 for the Make-a-Wish Foundation last year. Aiming for similar amount this year.
• Started erecting the lights in September.
• The display takes 3 hours to set up and one hour to shut down each night.
• The lights all run from several large transformers (one is an old welder) on five power points.
• The lights use around 12,000 watts of electricity and cost around $1.20 per hour to run.
• The lights actually save Sydney over 1 megawatt hours of power per night! (because all the visitors are not at home with their air conditioners, TV’s etc. running.)
• Around 2 kilometres of aluminium rod was welded up to make the figures (Climbing Santas etc.)
• Around 30 kilometres of wiring is used to connect all the lights.
• Small patterns in tree, language signs and most of the large patterns were hand made by us.
• All of the coloured lights on the patterns are hand-painted with glass paint - over 15,000 bulbs!
• 3D patterns (presents under tree, champagne bottle, conveyor belt etc.) were created by photographing a real scene, enlarging the photo then manufacturing the pattern to the same shape.
• Moving arms on Santas, Tweety etc. are two separate arms and a timer circuit to alternate the lights.
• Climbing/walking Santa is controlled by a computer via 4 parallel port cards and a BASIC program and took about 1,500 hours to build. Mickey and Santa took 300 hours, lounge scene about 200 hours.
• Countdown clock, elves factory, snowmen snow fight and fireworks are each controlled by a PIC (programmable IC). Countdown clock and factory each took around 1,000 hours to design and build.
• The countdown clock counts down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until Christmas. It also displays over 60 scrolling messages, including “Merry Christmas” in over 40 different languages.
• The data that drives the elves’ factory is stored in an Excel spreadsheet - one column per lights circuit, one row per step of the animation. The spreadsheet contains over 36,000 cells.
• The 7,000 twinkling lights in the front garden are all controlled by one single 8-function controller of the type attached to most multi-function light strings. It drives 4 transistors on a huge heat sink.
• The signs on the front of the house say "Merry Christmas" in 26 different languages.
• Sleighs and reindeer on the other houses up the street are controlled via radio.
• “Welcome to Maple St” and animated Santa sequence on the water tower at the top of the hill are ours, as are several of the other displays on nearby houses.
• Most lights were originally plain strings of clear bulbs, purchased from Target or Woolworths.
• Plastic owls are used to scare away the white cockatoos because they like chewing on the lights.
• Near the display you can listen to Christmas music on “Lugarno Lights FM”, hosted by Alan Jones.
• There is a webcam displaying live images of the display at www.lugarnolights.optusnet.com.au.
• We sell a computer disk containing numerous photos and videos of the display.
• Lights are on from 8pm-10.30pm from 1st-30th December.
• Santa visits from 8.30pm-10.00pm every night from 18th to 24th December.