Lighting Up Paxton is the online home and social media name of the locally known Johnson Christmas Display in Paxton, Illinois.
It has been a hobby and passion of myself, Victor Johnson, to bring this Christmas tradition to the local community for over two decades now. Since the young age of eight years-old I have found great joy in combining my creativity and love for seeing other houses lit up for Christmas into a display of my own on my parents' home in Paxton.
The display has grown steadily through the years as more lights were always a part of my annual Christmas list. By the time I had graduated high school in 2007 there were over 25,000 lights, mostly adorned on our large evergreen bushes in front of the house.
I continued the tradition for two of the four years I was attending the University of Illinois, finding time on weekends and Thanksgiving break to set up the display.
My senior year of college in late 2010 I watched a YouTube video from a Utah resident named Richard Holdman who synchronized his Christmas lights to the song Amazing Grace. I had seen another viral video like this in 2005 while in high school, but Richard's classical presentation of lights and color changes to red and green gave me a renewed interest in the idea of synchronizing my own display to music.
Soon after Christmas of that year I used some of the money I had saved working during the summers to buy all the red and green lights I could find in the 75% off clearance sales. This is a much more difficult feat to pull off today as stores are better at maintaining efficient inventory, but I certainly capitalized in 2010. Now stocked full of boxes of red and green, and the clear lights I already had, I would be in the position to hopefully pull off this new goal of synchronizing my display to music.
Through 2011 I continued to study the logistics and methods of creating a synchronized light display, watching how-to videos, reading through websites, and joining online Christmas enthusiast forums like Planet Christmas. I also started synchronizing the lights to a few songs I picked out by learning how to use software from a company called Light-O-Rama. The final purchase I had to make was the control system from Light-O-Rama in late 2011 that would allow the computer software to communicate with all of the lights.
I spent nearly two months during the fall preparing all the new display items and control boxes. One thing I underestimated was the time to layout the nearly 5000 feet of new extension cords a synchronized light display takes to function. With all of the learning curves I was trying to overcome with this new idea, I finally flipped the switch on my first synchronized light display a week late on December 9, 2011.
It has been a hobby and passion of myself, Victor Johnson, to bring this Christmas tradition to the local community for over two decades now. Since the young age of eight years-old I have found great joy in combining my creativity and love for seeing other houses lit up for Christmas into a display of my own on my parents' home in Paxton.
The display has grown steadily through the years as more lights were always a part of my annual Christmas list. By the time I had graduated high school in 2007 there were over 25,000 lights, mostly adorned on our large evergreen bushes in front of the house.
I continued the tradition for two of the four years I was attending the University of Illinois, finding time on weekends and Thanksgiving break to set up the display.
My senior year of college in late 2010 I watched a YouTube video from a Utah resident named Richard Holdman who synchronized his Christmas lights to the song Amazing Grace. I had seen another viral video like this in 2005 while in high school, but Richard's classical presentation of lights and color changes to red and green gave me a renewed interest in the idea of synchronizing my own display to music.
Soon after Christmas of that year I used some of the money I had saved working during the summers to buy all the red and green lights I could find in the 75% off clearance sales. This is a much more difficult feat to pull off today as stores are better at maintaining efficient inventory, but I certainly capitalized in 2010. Now stocked full of boxes of red and green, and the clear lights I already had, I would be in the position to hopefully pull off this new goal of synchronizing my display to music.
Through 2011 I continued to study the logistics and methods of creating a synchronized light display, watching how-to videos, reading through websites, and joining online Christmas enthusiast forums like Planet Christmas. I also started synchronizing the lights to a few songs I picked out by learning how to use software from a company called Light-O-Rama. The final purchase I had to make was the control system from Light-O-Rama in late 2011 that would allow the computer software to communicate with all of the lights.
I spent nearly two months during the fall preparing all the new display items and control boxes. One thing I underestimated was the time to layout the nearly 5000 feet of new extension cords a synchronized light display takes to function. With all of the learning curves I was trying to overcome with this new idea, I finally flipped the switch on my first synchronized light display a week late on December 9, 2011.
Since the debut of the synchronized display in 2011, things continue to grow each year. In 2012 more red and green lights were added, including more trees to the side yard. In 2013 the large maple trees in the front yard got lights up to 50 feet in the air. After two years off from assembling the massive display, 2017 featured double the number of strobes and dripping light tubes, along with the new song "Light of Christmas." The 2019 display showcased all of the same favorites of 2017 with the new song "Do You Hear What I Hear."
It was also in 2019 when I met my wife, Sarah. She was a great help when it came to fixing lights in preparation for the 2019 display and I am so blessed she continues to participate in the setup process along with me. Sarah and I were married in late 2020 and put the display on hold for two years while we built our lives together and moved in to our own remodeled home across the street from the display where I grew up. Now in 2022, we are both thrilled to be sharing our Christmas display with the community once again. Setup will be underway throughout November, with our debut night scheduled for Friday, November 25th.
We wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!
Victor & Sarah Johnson and family
We wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!
Victor & Sarah Johnson and family
