20,000 Christmas Lights: All Controlled by YOU Online!

Alek Komarnitsky’s 20,000 Christmas light display is back online! 

It’s that time of year once again when our friend Alek Komarnitsky pulls out his dozens of boxes of Christmas lights and Christmas inflatables and sets up the controls for you to play with from the comfort of your very own home.

We post about this every year and Alek is back at it again in 2011 with his display of more than 20,000 Christmas lights to help raise awareness and money for Celiac research. Komarnitsky’s two sons have Celiac disease and his yearly Christmas displays usually do quite well for the cause. Komarnitsky has gotten a lot of publicity for his bringing awareness to Celiac research and his displays only continue to grow (he’s been doing the hardcore Christmas light thing since ’99).

In 2004 Alek, of Boulder, CO, started toying with the idea of internet users around the world controlling the lights in his front yard by being able to watch them turn off and on in a live stream. He concocted an elaborate hoax which tricked viewers into thinking they were really controlling the lights but instead used a succession of still images to make it appear so. After the local news broadcast live from a helicopter looking down at the lights (as his wife stayed busy on the ground turning lights off and on for the on-air segment), Alek decided he would fess up to the silly hoax. It was then that he decided he would do it for real. His idea caught on like wildfire and his Christmas light display has only gotten better and better every year since, and to top it off, he has helped to raise tens of thousands of dollars for Celiac research. Not too shabby.

Pass this link onto your kids once it gets dark, and let them have fun inflating and deflating various Christmas characters or turning groups of lights off and on. Three live webcams are on nightly between 5pm – 11pm MST. You can also post messages or “shoutouts” live on the webcam. You can make a donation at the site as well and your name (or anonymous if you wish) will be listed on the site.

So go check it out and have fun controlling the lights! It’s all for a great cause so please, spread the word!

VISIT: ALEK’S CONTROLLABLE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS FOR CELIAC DISEASE