High-tech holiday display

It was Dec. 8 when Arthur Suiter laid eyes and ears on Mason, Ohio, resident Carson Williams’ mind-blowing “Wizards of Winter,” Christmas light show. The show flashed note-by-note to Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s holiday musical storm. [Planet Christmas: The World's Most Extreme Christmas Decorations!]

It was the very next day that Suiter called up Williams and began his Christmas mission to bring such Griswold gold to his own house for the holidays.

You remember Carson Williams house in Mason, Ohio?” Suiter asked. “Well, we are doing that in Chesapeake.”

That is The Christmas Fantasy of Lights 2006: 27,000 lights that get flipped on Thanksgiving night tripping the light fantastic in a way the Tri-State has never seen or heard.

Powered up with control boxes from a Light-O-Rama computer program, the show flashes lights in time to five holiday songs in a dazzling 14-minute show.

There will be a new show every 20 minutes for folks to drive-through with a six-minute break of music-only in between shows.

The light show will be on from 6 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 6 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday and will be up through Jan. 1.

A former Chesapeake school board member and former president of the fair board in Lawrence County, Suiter said he was swept away with the Mason show.

“I was just fascinated with his show, and I had to do it when I found out nobody locally was doing it,” Suiter said. “I’ve always been involved with projects and community involvement. It was something I wanted to do, and it was a nice little challenge for me. It has turned out pretty nice, and the community is going to like it.”

Unlike the Christmas lights battle royale that breaks out in the holiday movie, “Deck the Halls,” which opens Wednesday with Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito, Suiter had lots of kindred spirits helping him build the lights show.

They include Todd Gilpin, Rob Queen and Jim Thompson, who have helped power up the massive project that takes more than a half of a mile of extension cords.

The show has three Trans-Siberian Orchestra numbers, “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” by Danny Elfman and the Macarena Christmas Song.

“The toughest thing was writing the lights to the music,” Suiter said. “Every note has to be written to the lights, and it has to be in sequence. Once everything started coming together, it really was a lot of fun.”

And Williams, too, in spite of the crush of national exposure, was on board to lend a helping hand.

“Carson has been very helpful,” Suiter said. “He sent me the software, and then I got addicted. I did copy a bit of his stuff. He said it was OK, but we have a lot of things unique to our show.

One thing, Suiter hopes not to duplicate is the traffic problems that closed down Williams’ show last year and which was a deciding factor in moving that show (splashed all over national TV) to downtown to Mason this season.

The location of Suiter’s more secluded home and the fact that he is surrounded by family, should negate some of the issues that Williams’ neighbors had with traffic in Mason last Christmas.

Suiter’s home is located on a city-block long private drive off of Ohio 243 between Chesapeake and Proctorville.

The drive will be two-way, and there is a sign with instructions so that folks can turn on their radios to hear the music show.

“Once you get up to the top of the hill there is plenty of room to turnaround,” Suiter said.