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 Wanda Clark's house is ready for Christmas and drive-by visitors who can see a 20-minute synchronized holiday music show while listening to a car radio. Her sons, Brooks and Brandon, put it together. The house is near Kelso, Mo., off County Road 208, one mile west of U.S. 61. (Fred Lynch) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo] |
Putting on a multicolored light show around the home near Kelso had been a goal for the Clarks for a few years. The brothers were inspired by a light show in Cape Girardeau, which started their online search for ideas.
"We looked at a lot of ideas on the Internet and put the best ones together for our own." Brooks Clark said.
The day after Christmas last year, the brothers bought up as many light sets as possible.
They worked off and on all year to rewire their mother's home so it could withstand the higher electrical load. Because of the high electricity requirements, they cannot turn on all the lights at the same time. The lights of just one color can take up to 150 amps -- the average home uses 200 amps.
They set the light show to music, breaking down the songs to 20th-of-a-second intervals and programming which lights would be lit up each interval. It took the brothers eight to 10 hours to set the lights to one song. In total, there are eight light shows, which include Christmas songs such as "Christmas Eve in Sarajevo," "Wizards in Winter," "Carol of the Bells," "Music Box Dancer," "Silent Night" and "God Rest Ye Gentlemen."
The Clarks tuned a low-power radio transmitter to broadcast to the top of the hill that viewers will be parked along. Viewers need to set their car radios to 87.9 FM to hear the music.
The light show debut was at 7 p.m. Thursday, and hundreds of people had viewed the display by 8:30 p.m., Brooks Clark said.
There will be shows 6 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 6 to 10:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday until the end of the year. The light show is on County Road 208, on the right just before the Knights of Columbus hall when coming from Scott City.
"We did it for the kids and thought this was the best way to give a gift to the whole community," Brooks Clark said.
The brothers knew some about electronics before they started, but they said that with the help of their grandfather, they have learned a lot they will put to use in the future. They have already started planning to expand next year's show, with more songs, lights and special effects.
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Congratulations to you two young men, Brooks and Brandon!!!!! May God bless your kindness, thoughtfulness and concern for others and return these acts to you. I look forward to driving my family to see your display during the holiday season as well. People like yourselves make the holidays an additionally happy time. Bravo guys!!!
This should be worth the time to take the whole family to go see. Thank you both for your hard work and we look forward to seeing it.
we will be there prolly tonite!! brandon and brooks are my cousins and i remember the day that our uncle told me they had bought over 50,000 lights the day after Christmas!! I about croaked! lol I really didnt think they would do it but so happy they did! and knowing them two, and what they come up with im am 100% sure it will be bigger and better next yr. good job u two!! already cant wait for next yrs display!! :D
AWESOME job Brandon & Brooks...so proud to have you as my bros! I know how hard you guys worked on this...I'm confident everyone will LOVE it! "Is the house on fire Clark?"
Brandon & Brooks, I'm so very proud of you two!!!! I saw how much time & effort you put into this project, knowing it was coming from your hearts to give the meaning of Christmas to others. I love you even more for your acts of kindness & generosity. Once again, you have made me so very proud to be your mother!!! I love you forever & always.
What would really be nice is if the people would show their appreciation for the light show, and leave a donation in the mailbox to help with the cost of putting this together, and for the electric bill. Anything left over would be a bonus for their effort. Who knows....it might be bigger next year! Great job guys :-]
I have seen this house. You two did a FANTASTIC JOB!!!! I Could go on and on my kids think it is the greatest and since we don't live far we will be by every night i am sure of it.
Thank you all that have posted messages and most of all, thank you all that have come to see our light show display. My Brother(BROOKS) and I are very happy to see everyone come and see the show! We did this for everyone to come see and we hope everyone will enjoy it! We are currently working on two more songs that we hope to put in the display within a week or two. We would also like to thank Jessica Hupp for writing this article, she did a great job! Also we would like to thank the people who helped out in their own little ways!!! First, our Grandpa who helped with all the wiring, our grandma, our sister, and our Dad who helped with purchasing the Nativity Set and a few extension cords!!! Our cousin Landon who designed and built the Nativity Manger, with the help of our cousin Nick,who threw in a helping hand! Also our Uncle Todd, who helped out a lot with everything throughout the year and who gets to put up with watching the display for the next month! I definitely will not forget about My Wife, Angie, and our two boys who had to put up with all the "Light Show Days", and Denae, Brooks' fiance' who had to deal with the same! But most of all, we have to thank our Mother! Thanks for letting us USE your house!!! Not only that, but for everything that you have done, and I think she knows what we mean! We love you always and forever!!!!!! If there is anyone we are forgetting, we're sorry, there was a lot of people that really helped out throughout the year! Again, we hope everyone makes a point to come see the show, and see all of our hard work we put into it...... We did it for YOU!!!!!! And this is our Christmas Gift to YOU!!!!!!
We just got home from seeing the light display and this has made my day. Fantastic job!!
Has anyone uploaded any video from this? My hubby and I saw the show tonight and thought it was awesome and would love to share video (if there is any uploaded anywhere) with online friends that don't live in this area.
We saw it Saturday night and thought it was great. I noticed on YouTube that there are at least 2 videos of some of the songs; I think one was called Kelso Christmas Lights and I found the other one near that. The videos are ok but nothing as good as seeing it in person!