After tonight’s first show at what you can formally call “West Seattle Lights presents the Helmstetler Family Christmas Spectacular,” that’s how the house looked with every light switched on. About 40 minutes early, the music-synched light show’s third season had kicked off – literally, with Seattle Sounders FC‘s Zach Scott kicking a goal instead of pulling a switch (followed by an appropriate, albeit non-Christmasy, song):
He signed autographs afterward:
But wait! Back to the lights. 60,000 of them this year – LEDs, which means not as much of an electricity drain as you might think. Jim Winder is again the mastermind, working on it for months before the actual lights start going up on the 3908 SW Charlestown home of his friends the Helmstetler Family. We stayed through the whole set tonight – enjoying songs both traditional and novelty, the latter including a Village People takeoff (“N-O-E-L” instead of “Y-M-C-A”) and this ’60s classic:
Full details about the show, the location, and more, are on its official website at westseattlelights.com. (This year they have a Facebook page and Twitter feed, too!) Bring a donation for the West Seattle Food Bank – the bin’s out front (as shown in our preview from last weekend) – and this weekend, they’re also collecting money for the Kingston Family ($ donations the rest of the season will go to the food bank and NW Parkinson’s Foundation) . Best place to watch the show is right across Charlestown in front of the water tower, but if you bring little ones, be sure to remind them to stay out of the street – it’s not blocked off for the show, and there can be a fair amount of traffic (as you’ll note in our clips). Here’s the schedule.
| 12 COMMENTS