Lights of Skoz was first created in 2006 by Aaron Skoczen when he first moved to the Winterhaven community.  It was known that Christmas lights was a very popular theme in Winterhaven and it was even rumored to be a rule of the community.  Later this turned out to be only a Winterhaven Myth of which there are many.

Aaron purchased his home in June of 2006 and the ideas and thoughts quickly began to appear as to what type of Christmas theme to build.  He began by first searching the internet for ideas of Christmas light themes.  He found everything from Charlie Brown, to Disney, to Superman.  The ideas were endless.  So he hung a picture of his house on his bedroom wall and began looking at it every day asking “what could this be in my eye of imagination”.  He soon began seeing a gingerbread house and thought “That’s it.  I’ll create a Hansel and Gretel theme with the house dressed as a gingerbread house.”

He was off to create his vision.  He began finding many static Christmas light themes that had houses dressed like gingerbread houses.  However this was not going to suffice.  This type of display was too ordinary.  There was no “Wow!” factor.  Aaron’s background is as an engineer, thus his natural innovative drive to make things “bigger, better, and faster” was overpowering him.

He soon came across a video on the internet of a house all dressed in lights.  The lights then appeared to “dance” to a song in the background.  Aaron had never seen this before and knew nothing about it.  His Hansel and Gretel plan, soon diminished.  Here is something with a definite “Wow!” factor, and better yet…  a challenge!  Visions of synchronized lights soon began to reveal themselves.  It was in his dreams.  He thought about it at work. He searched the internet to all hours of the night.  Then soon came the realization, as does with many innovators, this is s great idea, however I have no clue how to do it!

The breaks of reality were quickly applied.  So it was back to the Google search engine to determine how this technology is applied.  He came across many website that began directing him toward different technologies.  He soon ran across a couple of forums that were full of information.  To his disbelief, there was actually Christmas light enthusiast from all over the country that embedded their soles into the hobby year round.  “These people are nuts,” he thought.  “I’ll fit right in!”  You can find these sites on our FAQ’s and Resources page.

After many hours of chatting with strangers in online forums, and emailing vendors back and forth, Aaron finally settled on the technology he would use out of the many available.  He decided upon Light-O-Rama (LOR).  There were now many items that had to be figured out prior to hooking up the very first light bulb:

• Using and programming the software
• Choosing and clipping music together
• Installing the control boards
• Building the light features
• Coordinating everything to music
• Finding and purchasing the lights and construction materials

Well it was already October and others with experience had reported taking weeks to setup AFTER they had already known what they were doing. Thus the logical thing to do, would be to purchase the software, and one LOR board and strive to create one feature.  This would be the test year to conquer the learning curve of all of this.  Well this just was not acceptable! Why not take on more than you can chew, stay up to all hours of the night, stress like you’ve never stressed before, lose 18 lbs from not eating, AND have the Christmas light feature of your life.

So he purchased 9 LOR boards, the software, all the wire UPS could carry, and all the Christmas lights Home Depot had on their shelves.  He called all his friends that were up for the challenge and then went to work.  Needless to say, November and December of 2006 were memorable.  They completed their task in time for the lights to go on December 12, and then slept for 2 weeks straight.  In fact, Aaron was so burnt out from Christmas lights that the display did not get taken down until April of 2007, (in which he kindly apologizes to his neighbors.)

The learning curve had been broken and future years went much easier.  He devised techniques to setting up the displays easier and faster the following years and each year got better.

It’s a goal now to introduce a new “Wow Feature” every year and then to build upon the items of the past.  For instance, in 2007, the water fountain was introduced and in 2008, it was dramatically overhauled for better performance.  In fact many people thought it was an entirely new fountain.  Same fountain, just different method of showing it off.

Today, Aaron seems to spend all year dreaming up new ideas for the next season’s performance.  His eye is out constantly for new songs, techniques, and lighting ideas that could be implemented to make the Light of Skoz bigger and better.

If you have any comments, suggestions, or ideas, please send them to us through our Guest Book page.  We’d love to read them.