On the hunt for the best Christmas light displays in the city? A Calgarian has a map for that

This article was originally published on Dec. 17, 2022.

Growing up, John Cooper loved to walk around his neighbourhood enjoying the beautiful lights adorning homes for the holidays. 

His friend's house had one of the best displays, he said, and it became his goal to one day also have the best Christmas lights in the neighbourhood.

There's no official title or anything, but with a four-hour show that includes more than 10,000 lights programmed in-time to about 60 songs, Cooper's home in the MacEwan neighbourhood is definitely worth a visit.

"We've had party buses come by and stop on the street, and some of the retirement homes will bring their residents around, too, on little minibuses," he said.

"And then, a few years ago, we started doing things for different charities.… So that makes it all worthwhile, too, to see the charities benefit."

Cooper's home is one of dozens featured on a digital map pinpointing residential holiday displays across the city. 

It's called Lighten UP Calgary, and it was launched by Calgarian Silvana Stoesser seven years ago.

She says she wanted to make it easier for residents to find the best displays in Calgary.

"I think it's a tradition to go out before Christmas, take your kids out and drive around and look at those beautiful Christmas displays," she said in an interview on The Homestretch.

"When you just want to drive around, let's say in your community, then you can see where you can go."

Anyone is welcome to submit their display to the website. Stoesser says they don't vet or judge submissions in order for them to be included.

Of course, Stoesser's own house in Chaparral is included. It's decked out with lots of lights, massive inflatable decorations and — playing homage to her background — some German Christmas music.

LISTEN | Silvana Stoesser explains what Lighten UP Calgary is all about:

Many homes on the site ask for donations in return for enjoying their hard work.

Cooper has kept his display going for the better part of a decade. In that time, he says, he's raised thousands in funds for the food bank, collected hundreds of pounds of food and gathered dozens of pairs of socks for those in need.

"I think, at this time of year, it's really important."

'It went bananas'

Each year, Cooper's display just keeps getting bigger and better, he says.

As promised, when he got a home of his own in Calgary, he started hanging hundreds of lights for the holidays. When he discovered the programmable kind in 2015, "it went bananas from there," he said.

"There's about 10,000 lights … but it's really like 100,000 lights because we can change the colours and change the patterns," he said.

"They're all efficient LED lights, and they're not all on all the time. So it's, you know, we don't really notice it from a power bill perspective."

WATCH | The nightly show usually begins with this song, Cooper says, to 'make a little fun of myself':

It takes about one to three hours to program each minute of music, depending on how elaborate you get, he says. Each year, he adds a few more songs to his repertoire. 

Cooper has a background in technology, which helps, but he says anyone could do it.

"There's commercial software available to help you do the programming," he said. "It's kind of like working in Excel, so you're just mapping the lights to the music and putting patterns on."

Getting the lights up on the house, in the correct order, is no easy feat, either.

He says he starts the setup around Thanksgiving to ensure everything gets done in time. 

He also custom built an interactive element this year: a Santa house, where visitors can walk through and see video of the man in red placing presents under a tree. It's also where people can find the donation bins for the Calgary Food Bank.

The nightly show runs from 6 to 10 p.m. until Jan. 2. You can tune in to 88.3 FM to hear the music or listen to the outdoor speakers.

"It's loud enough you can hear it, but not loud enough to annoy the neighbours too much," Cooper said. 

"The neighbours are happy they don't have to light up their house ... we cast enough light down the street for everyone."