Light-O-Rama

Driving around to look at outdoor Christmas decorations, particularly those with lights, is a tradition for many families.

The drive naturally includes a trip through Cape County Park North to see the Holiday of Lights displays erected by churches, civic organizations and businesses.

Most of the other displays on sightseeing routes are in neighborhoods where individuals, or sometimes two or three houses in a row, have outdone themselves.

A new must-see display at 2206 Kent St. in Cape Girardeau has been added to many itineraries this season. The house belongs to Joe Morris, information-technology director for Orthopedic Associates. Morris has hooked 10,000 lights to a computer program called Light-O-Rama. The program synchronizes the lights with 10 Christmas songs put through an FM modulator on the 88.7 frequency so that passers-by can tune in on their car radios. The show is presented from 6 to 9 p.m. daily and takes half an hour to see the entire program of music and lights.

There are plenty of other outdoor displays worth driving by all over the neighborhoods in our area. Most of these have been put up for everyone to enjoy. But some displays attract so many visitors that traffic can get jammed up. If you're out and about on the evenings of this holiday season, remember to be courteous and mindful of the fact that many others want to see the decorations, too.

Thanks to modern electrical gizmos, more and more displays show what technology can do with strings of bright lights.

It's going to be a high-tech Christmas in many households this year. Light-O-Rama is only the shape of things to come.