NORWICH – The seasonal light show on 121 Warner Road in Norwich is in full swing with Christmas Day fast approaching. Rick and Karen Lindner have been illuminating their yard with lights, decorations and Christmas cheer, every year since 2002. Beginning with the Norwich Christmas Parade of Lights, the Lindner’s yard explodes to life, every night between 5 and 9 p.m., as the lights blink to the beat of Christmas music broadcasted on 95.9 FM.
“It takes about three hours of programing to coordinate every one minute of the light show,” explained Rick. It takes Rick and his family an average of 200 hours every year setting up their light show. But once everything is out there, all Rick needs to do is press the start button on his computer, and the lights take care of themselves for the rest of the holiday season.
“The lights only shut down during the rain because of a ground fault circuit interrupter I installed to prevent electrocution,” said Rick. Snow will not shut down the light show though, so people can come and enjoy the visual performance while frozen flakes tumble from the sky, contributing to the holiday feeling.
“We average around 40,000 lights and change the layout for every year’s show,” said Karen. The lights draw all kinds of people to the Lindner yard, from residents of local nursing homes shipping in on buses, to individuals slowly driving by as they circumvent the U-shaped Warner Road, or even high school sports teams making a quick stop on their way home form a big game.
An important feature of the Lindner’s display are two neatly designed weather-proof bins where spectators can make donations to local food drives.
“We ask people to find it in their hearts to bring non-perishable food items,” said Rick. “Every night after the light show, we clean out the bins so the food doesn’t freeze, and at the end of each week we give all of the collected food to either Roots and Wings or the Emmanuel Episcopal Church Food Pantry, depending on which one needs it more,” he said, adding it’s important to his family the donated food remains in the county to help local people in need.
“Usually by the end of the year we have collected between 1,500 and 5,800 pounds of food, depending on the economy,” said Karen.
The origins of Lindner’s extravagant light show are rooted in Rick’s childhood experience growing up in Philadelphia. “My family didn’t have much money, so as part of our holiday celebration we would drive around the city to see all of the Christmas decorations,” he said. One street in particular was a source of admiration and later inspiration for Rick’s own light show. In the heart of the Philadelphia, one resident collaborated with his neighbors to coordinated a light show among 60 homes. The Philadelphia light show had a combined number of lights ranging from 300,000 to 350,000, reported Rick, and it was so widely beloved, the electric company offered to foot the electric bill and city hall shut down the street to cars for the whole month.
“Nothing was ever stolen during that month either, “said Rick. “Even though there where bins out full of charity collections,” said Rick.
“Our neighbors enjoy the light show so much that when I joked about not doing it this year with one of them, they insisted that we did,” said Rick. In 2010, during the 90 days prior to when Rick turns on his lights, he was busy working 16 hour days. Rick had subsequently decided not to put up the lights that year, but one day when he came home from work, his 7-year-old daughter, Tyler, told him to close his eyes. Tyler led her father, whose eyes were still squinted shut, into the basement where she had pulled all of the 40,000 lights and decorations out of storage by herself.
“I wanted to surprise him,” said Tyler. “I just wanted to help because I love doing it every year.”
“When I saw all of the lights out, I laughed,” said Rick. “I couldn’t tell her to put them away, so we got started setting the whole thing up.”