How one San Diego dad built a DIY holiday music light show
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The singing Christmas tree at 5439 Brunswick Ave. Image: Claire Trageser/Axios
Justin Michalowski has a little advice for anyone thinking about creating a holiday music house: don't wait until December.
The big picture: Michalowski's home at 5439 Brunswick Ave. in Allied Gardens is covered with lights that coordinate with holiday music he broadcasts through a small antenna.
- His house is one of several across San Diego where you can tune into a radio station and watch a synchronized light show.
Between the lines: Creating a music house is an engineering feat. Michalowski guesses he's spent 300 hours crafting his display.
How it works: He uses 6,000 programmable pixels bought in bulk from China.
- "Every single one is a microchip, and every single one has an LED, and each one has three channels — one for red, one for green, one for blue," he told Axios. "They make all the colors you see, like the purple, the pinks, everything like that is just them mixing together."
- The pixels are attached to decorations like a poinsettia, snowflakes and a singing Christmas tree.
- All of it is controlled by a laptop running the software xLights from his garage.
Flashback: Michalowski had planned to set up a light show in 2020, but he broke his heel and wrist falling off a ladder.
- He swears he was not setting up decorations at the time.
- Still, he powered through because he'd made a promise to his two sons and set up all the decorations with a boot on his leg and crutches.
Follow the money: It's an expensive hobby. Individual decorations can cost thousands of dollars. But, Michalowski said, he's figured out how to do it on the cheap.
- Or, relatively cheap.
- He makes his own decorations, buys things used, and goes in with other music homeowners on bulk orders from China.
Fun fact: This year, Michalowski added a "KPop Demon Hunters" medley into his rotation of holiday songs.
Do it yourself: Michalowski said anyone interested should first read Facebook groups to get advice.
- Start small, he said, with one or two decorations, and build from there.
- "People have reached out to me, and they tried to go all out right away, and they're trying to do it in November," he said. "You have to start in summer because there's a lot of planning and buying, and lead times for shipping."
The bottom line: Maybe wait until next year if you have Christmas music house dreams.