Powell Family Lights

12/21/2025

🎄✨ The Powell Family Lights Christmas Show is LIVE! ✨🎄

I just got the show up and running tonight. I really wanted to get it going before Christmas, and we did it! The songs are the same as last year, and I hope they bring joy to all who stop by!

Here’s what you need to know:

🎶 There’s a button out front that plays the show through speakers for about 10 minutes with each press. It’s a way to keep the music going without blasting the neighbors all night. If the music stops, just press the button again. One press = ~10 minutes of audio.

📻 You can also tune in to 87.9 FM from your car or with a portable radio.

🧠 Just like in past years, there are some important reminders:
⚠️ The show includes flashing lights that could affect those who are sensitive.
⚠️ The setup uses a high-power laser projector — do not look directly into the light.
⚠️ Please don’t touch or lean on the projector box — it’s all aligned pretty carefully and even a small bump can throw things off.

Show runs every night through the New Year (as long as nothing breaks 🤞).

🕕 Plays every 30 minutes starting at 6 PM, last show at 11 PM
📍230 Treetop Way, Buda, TX
📻 87.9 FM

10/22/2025

🎃 The Powell Family Lights Halloween Show is LIVE! 👻

Everything’s set and running — the show will play every night, with the first showing starting at 7:30 PM (once it’s almost completely dark). It will repeat every 30 minutes throughout the evening, with the last show at 11PM.

Remember, there are no outdoor speakers this year, so you’ll need to tune in to 87.9 FM from your car or bring a portable FM radio if you’re walking up. 🎃💡🕸️

⚠️ Important safety reminders ⚠️

⚠️ The show includes flashing lights, which may affect those who are sensitive to them.

⚠️ The display uses a high-power laser projector, so please do not look directly into the light — it’s not safe for your eyes.

⚠️ Please don’t lean or push on the projector box. It’s lined up just right, and even a small bump can throw off the alignment.

10/21/2025

🎃 Powell Family Lights is back for Halloween! 👻

It’s been a little while since our last Halloween show, but I’m excited to share that our Halloween light show is returning this year (same songs, might add more next year)! I spent the evening testing everything and I think I finally have all the kinks worked out — the show should be up and running tomorrow night. I’ll do another post once I’m sure everything’s running smoothly.

This tradition has always been something our family looked forward to, and I know Blythe would be happy to see it continuing. We loved watching the lights together, and it means a lot to bring that spirit back to life this season.

There won’t be outdoor speakers this year, so if you’re walking up or parked out front, tune your FM radio to 87.9 FM to hear the music.

You can find more about the history of our shows and past displays on this page — you can also share a quick link with friends and family: www.powell.family



⚠️ A FEW WARNINGS/REMINDERS ⚠️

⚠️ The show includes flashing lights, which may affect those who are sensitive to them.

⚠️ The display uses a high-power laser projector, so please do not look directly into the light — it’s not safe for your eyes.

⚠️ Please don’t lean or push on the projector box. It’s lined up just right.

10/24/2024

Dear friends and neighbors,

After much reflection, I've made the decision to take this Halloween season off from our usual displays, including our projector show and the candy-shooting coffin. While these traditions have been a labor of love we have enjoyed, I've realized I need to just focus on family time with my daughter this year.

It wasn't an easy decision, but sometimes we need to give ourselves grace and space. I do plan to bring our displays back next year when I am ready.

Regarding Christmas, I haven't made any decisions yet, but I'll be sure to keep this page updated.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support of our family. Your kindness means more than you know.

Warmly,
Chris

10/19/2024

Dear friends and neighbors,

It's been a while since my last update, and I wanted to post to update you on where we are. As some of you may know from my previous post, my wife Blythe's cancer had returned last November. It is with a heavy heart that I share that Blythe passed away in May. We have been taking it one day at a time and we have had amazing support from all of our people and we are forever grateful!

Regarding our holiday displays:

- For Halloween, I'm hoping to set up a projector mapping show. I'm waiting on a new lens for my projector to arrive, hopefully this week. If all goes well, we may have something ready the weekend before Halloween, but also being kind to myself and if I don’t feel up for it, it may not happen, I will update this page next week or weekend.
- Also this year's Christmas display will be different - I am planning to focus solely on projector mapping rather than our usual light setup.
- I'll keep this page updated on our progress and let you know if plans change.

These displays have always been a labor of love for our family, and Blythe especially enjoyed seeing the joy they brought to our community and our daughter. While I'm being gracious with myself if things don't come together as planned, I'm looking forward to continuing this tradition with our daughter as well, but also just taking it a day at a time.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support. I'll post updates as we have them.

Warm regards,
Chris

12/10/2023

Howdy neighbors!

We have launched the show! There are a few issues, but I will most likely not have time to do anymore work on the show right now. My wife who has brain cancer has had her cancer come back and we just found out, I am needing to focus on her and the family right now and had to stop any further work on the show.

For those of you that want to stop by, 90+ percent of everything is working, some windows are out and a tree star is down, but you can view the show starting tonight! I will say I only did some brief testing so there might be a few issues beyond the things that did not get up/fixed.

The show will start at 530pm and repeat every 30 minutes, there are 4 songs with music. In between there is no music, just lights.

You can tune in to 87.9 FM and you can also press the button out front to hear audio there on the speakers (10 minutes per press).

We hope you have a happy holiday season and whatever your beliefs if you can send positive thoughts and/or prayers to our family we would greatly appreciate it!

As always we do not ask for anything but if you want to give a donation, we always ask that they be given to MD Anderson.

12/04/2023

The show is almost ready. Hoping to get it going this week and launch it fully next weekend.

Have been 3d printing some Raspberry Pi holders and mounting/testing everything, there have been quite a few repairs needed, but it is coming together!

I will post some photos of the progress, and I will be sure and share when we are live!

10/26/2023

⚠️Warning, there are flashing lights in the show.⚠️

Happy Halloween, Y'all!

The show has been live since the "soft launch", but I just was able to make a video to share with you all. I only recorded two of the three songs, as the last one is Bohemian Rhapsody, by Queen and is the exact video from last year, so I did not record that; you can watch that on this page or on YouTube, I will leave a link below for that.

There are two songs (Ghostbusters and Thunderstruck) in this video, and if you can make it by to see it in person, I encourage you to do so; if not, please enjoy the video, and we hope you and your family have a happy Halloween! Feel free to share as well.

Link to show: https://youtu.be/sYOLWWc5Z38



Link to Bohemian Rhapsody, by Queen: https://youtu.be/y-QzOlJXoTQ?si=EI33r-JGk36ku1zV

Link to YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com//videos

⚠️Warning: there are flashing lights in the show.⚠️Howdy from Buda, Texas! Here is our 2023 Halloween show this year. We made some tweaks to Ghostbusters an...

10/15/2023

⚠️Warning, there are flashing lights in the show.⚠️

Guess what, folks? The moment we've been waiting for is here! Our spooky show "soft launch" is happening TONIGHT! 🌙🎃

A soft launch means there are still some tweaks I am making including adding a new photo to the audio sign which still has a reindeer on it from Christmas I will also be adding another song tonight and fixing a few things I already see to fix in the video.

🔈Remember the audio button (currently with the reindeer) plays sound, but only for 10 minutes per press. 🔈

Want to stay in the car? No worries! Tune in to 87.9 FM, and let the Halloween vibes fill your car with spooky delights! 🚗📻

I will post a video soon. I have a few different projects going on, so wanting to get the show started and capture the video later.

Address: 230 Treetop Way, Buda, Tx

Show Times: first show 8 PM repeating every 30 minutes with the last show at 11 PM 

We hope your nights are full of thrills and chills. 🌟👻🎉

10/03/2023

UPDATE: Replacing video with a youtube link so it is not muted.

We are preparing for Halloween! There is a preview of the new song that will be part of the projector mopping show! This, of course is going to look different once it’s mapped to the house and not on the computer, but you get the idea.

We will post once we have the show live, hopefully in the next couple weeks.

This is also a little behind-the-scenes. I do my shows in after effects, and then I use mad mapper to map them to the house. I am potentially going to only use after effects this year, still testing that out.

⚠️Warning Flashing Lights in the video⚠️

I am working on the show this year for Halloween and will finish it soon! Excited to get this up and going!

12/31/2022

Howdy Neighbors! Just letting you all know, that there are a few issues with the lights, some of the windows are out and some are stuck on red at the moment (the majority of the lights still work, but wanted to let you know about a few issues going on).

I do not have time to fix them this weekend and it is only running through tomorrow night, so I will let the show run, but please know if you are coming that it is not perfect at the moment. I hope you all have a happy new year!!!

Cheers!

12/15/2022

People have asked me how does this work? What does it look like to set up and configure? I have put this video together to go through some of the computer back end and I try to give an overview of the process/setup/config.

I also tried to make this short, but it ended up being long...with YouTube you can watch it at 2x speed though, so it can be shorter depending on how fast you want to hear me talk!

People have asked me how does this work? This is a "short" (30 minute) drive by of some of the setup and how things are laid out and how things work.I will ...