27,000 lights. 20 Christmas songs. One family helping others
COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — Twenty-seven thousand.
That’s roughly how many lights you’ll find in the Onstott Christmas Extravaganza. Jenn and Mike Onstott have been curating their festive front-yard display since 2012.
“That’s how we bonded when we first started dating,” says Jenn. “He helped me decorate my Christmas tree and he was just as particular as I was…so that was always the plan whenever we bought our first house, was to have a big Christmas display.”
That’s exactly what they did when they bought their home in 2012. Their first display featured 19,000 incandescent lights, and was up to 22,000 lights just one year later. That’s when they added a separate electrical panel to prevent blowing breakers, and started playing with the idea of a light show set to music.
“We slowly reduced down all of the incandescent lights that we had into LED,” says Mike. LED lights are more energy-efficient and are programmable to any color.
The Onstotts continue to add more features every year, and their display now includes four fire canons and a giant sparker machine. “We went from a pretty traditional display to something with pyrotechnics,” laughs Jenn.
Their coordinated Christmas show features 20 songs, and lasts about an hour and twenty minutes. “It gives people something to go do,” says Mike, “you can come out and sit with popcorn in your car for an hour and watch the show. And that’s even more important today than it was last year.” All you have to do is tune your car’s radio to 88.9 FM to hear the music.
If that’s not enough, the Onstotts also host a virtual fundraiser for Children’s Hospital Colorado. They became involved with the hospital in 2018, when their son was born with a birth defect. “We just have always felt like if we have a way to give back, let’s give back,” says Jenn. They’ve raised around $1,700 in the past couple of years, “I feel like that’s pretty good for a community coming together to support a cause,” she adds.
You can visit the Onstott Christmas Extravaganza at 10046 Fraser Street, Commerce City, CO.
It runs from Thanksgiving to New Years Day:
- Monday - Thursday, 5 p.m. - 10 p.m.
- Friday - Sunday, 5 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.
During the week of Christmas the show stays on until 11pm.
You can donate to the virtual fundraise here or by texting CHOC648 to 71777.