2020 has been a tough year. But Sun City has some relief thanks to David Mathis.
Mathis has an enormous lights and music display in his yard and 11861 Sedgewick Drive. The lights are on from 4:30 to 10 p.m.
Mathis has created holiday displays for 50 years, putting in countless hours building an impressive-looking light show that rivals pro-level attractions.
“I moved to Sun City in 2001 and have been doing the decorations at this house for over 19 years. I try to add different things each year but kind out run out of different things to do, so I kind of play it by ear and just change things around each year. I have about eight thousand lights altogether.”
How long did it take to put up all those lights?
Mathis said, “I started the lights on November 2 and the ornaments on the lawn a week after the lights. It took me about ten days. The weather did me a favor, and it was not too cold to do it”
How did he get the lights up so high in the tree?
Mathis said, “In the front, where the lights blink, I used an extension ladder. I used a 6-inch plastic zip cable at the top. Each string of lights is 34 feet long, so I ran each string of lights 17 feet up to the top and the other half 17 feet down. I have 72 aluminum spikes where I pounded each end into the ground to keep them from blowing away with the wind. There are six colors of each string of lights. There are 3600 lights on that pear tree.”
How did he get the star to float above the trees?
Mathis said, “For the topper stars, I took aluminum pipes and cut them off 18 inches for each tree. I then used two nails for each 18-inch pipe and nailed them to each tree. Each star is attached to an aluminum pipe that I ran down the tree into the 18″ pipe that is nailed to the tree. I used bungee cords from the star to a branch to tighten the star so it does not move when it gets windy.”
Mathis has a yard full of decorative Christmas lights, Santa in a sleigh, Reindeer, Lighted Christmas Presents, a bear twirling a ball, and more.
Mathis said. “All the trees outside are lighted with LED lights so the amount of electricity I use is not that great. I have about 8000 lights in total”
Thousands of blinking lights are synchronized to music.
“The music is on a computer called Mr. Christmas which I purchased on Amazon. The computer has three zones and plays twenty different Christmas Carols where the lights blink with the music. The computer has six outlets, so I plugged in each set of colors to a separate plug causing them to blink differently with each carol. Each zone has a different set of carols making the lights to blink faster or slower according to what song is playing,” Mathis said.
Are there any lights left for the inside of the house?
“I only have one seven-foot tree in the house which has about one-thousand led lights on it.” Mathis said.
Do any of the lights go out?
“For the last couple of years, I have had a lot of trouble with squirrels,” he said. “They like to chew on the light strings. This year I purchased an Ultrasonic Squirrel Repeller which is electric and sends out different sounds that squirrels can’t stand. Since I put that on this year, I have not had one of my light strings snipped off by the squirrels. They use to snipe the light strings off down so far that it was impossible to fix, so I had to throw the string away and buy new ones. Not one string has been damaged by the squirrels so far this year.”
Where does he store all these decorations?
“I have a three-car garage and only one car, so the other space in the garage is used for storage.”
The home is a winter wonderland, literally making all merry and bright. January 1, 2021 will be the last night for the lights.
