Ken and Tanya Collins may offer Grays Harbor the closest thing the area will get to a winter wonderland without the snow.
The couple turn their house at 802 Reynvaan Drive in Central Park into an extravaganza of lights, music and projected images during the weeks before Christmas as part of their annual light show, “Jinglelights.” The show illuminates the entire neighborhood with an estimated 140,000 lights and 12 miles of wire being used to put the holiday spectacle together.
Three projectors, stacked on top of one another, are used to display images on the garage of the house during the show along with Christmas songs that are synced with the lights. Ken hand programs all the lights, with some taking up to 60 hours to complete. The Collinses started the setup for this year’s show at the end of October, but the planning started well before that. “It’s a year round project,” said Ken.
Ken has been doing a light show since 2007 at the house, but it wasn’t until he met Tanya that the show went public in 2008. The show runs for 45 minutes and plays at the top of each hour. It starts on Dec. 3, with shows at 6, 7 and 8 p.m., and 9 p.m. shows on Friday and Saturday, and runs through the month. Hot cocoa is given out during the show and there is a fire pit near the house so attendees can keep warm.
Although many would think an electrical endeavor of this scale would break the bank, Ken says the show only ups their electricity bill by about $100 a month. This is due to the fact that lights are LED and use little energy for the amount of light they produce.
Not only is the show a means of entertainment, but it is also a way to give back to the community. This year the Collinses will be accepting donations from show goers that will go to Grays Harbor Shop with a Cop, a program where law enforcement officers take underprivileged children to shop for Christmas presents for themselves and family. In the past the Collinses have given the money gathered from donations to the Children’s Advocacy Center of Grays Harbor.
“One of the requirements we have when we give to a charity is that is has to be child-related and the money has to stay in the Harbor,” said Tanya.
Ken got the idea for a light show in 2007 as a way for him to become more technologically savvy. He had never owned or operated a computer in the past and wanted to work on a project that would help him learn how. The lightshow has done just that. If anything, this project has turned him into, what some would call, a computer and electronics savant. There are more than 50 controller boards in the yard that manipulate all of the lights, synching how they move with the Christmas music played during the show as well as adding effects.
Ken works as a tugboat operator year-round, only coming home four or five days a month. He takes November and December off to put together the lights. He said he spends a good deal of time on the tugboat working on programming for the show.
“I can take a piece of it (the light show) with when I leave on the tugboat. It’s a piece of home,” he said.
With a project of this scale, the Collinses can’t do it all on their own. Luckily, they have very supportive neighbors and friends who assist in creating the massive light show. Travis and Tonya Davis are two of the Collinses’ friends who help set the show up every year. Ken and Travis work on the lights and setting up the physical show, while the wives provide moral support and are self-proclaimed as the “social directors.”
Tanya Collins works at the PUD, which helps with the show if any of the light structures are affected by wind damage, which is a very real possibility given the fact that the Collins’ house is on a hill. The Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office has also come to the show to help with the traffic in the past. Tanya says that vehicle congestion has been difficult to handle in previous years as there have been as many as 300 people at their house to watch the show at once. To remedy this problem, helpers are given walkie talkies to direct traffic at the top and bottom of the hill.
If putting “Jinglelights” itself together wasn’t enough, Ken also broadcasts the show from his computer so seniors and people with disabilities who can’t make it out of their cars are still able to experience a piece of the performance.
Jinglelights has started a trend in the Collins neighborhood, and both Tanya and Ken are happy to be a part of that.
“It gets the neighborhood in the spirit,” said Tanya.
“Nobody decorated up here before and now you see other people have already gotten started,” added Ken.
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