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The Brown Family Lights 2023

Christmas 2023
Weekdays 5:30pm - 9:30pm.

F/S 5:30pm - 9:30pm.
16 Calle Liberacion, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, 92688

Come see an amazing Christmas Light Show in Rancho Santa Margarita, Orange County that is synchronized to music. Load up the family and drive by for a true holiday treat!

Watch the videos on this site for a glimpse, but come see it in person. You can choose to stay in your car and listen to the show by tuning your radio to 88.3fm, or park your car and listen to the show via the small speakers outside the house. Whether you like traditional, or modern, there is a song for you. Nothing makes it feel more like Christmas than thousands of lights dancing to music.

Star Wars Sequence 2022

  • DIRECTIONS:
    Sun-Thurs: 5:30pm - 9:30pm
  • Fri-Sat from: 5:30pm - 10:00pm
  • Radio Station: 88.3 FM

  • Address:
  • 16 Calle Liberacion, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, 92688

Dates and Times

Show Runs from Thanksgiving to Dec 31st

Runs Sun-Thurs from: 5:30pm - 9:30pm
Runs Fri-Sat from: 5:30pm - 10:00pm
Broadcasting on  88.3 FM.

The Light of Christmas 2022

Some Local Comments

"This was the highlight of our holiday season. I don’t know who was dancing more in the car, the little ones or mom and dad. I hope you know that your family’s hard work brings joy that people will remember for years to come. Spectacular! We will surely be coming back again. Thank you!."

"My 4 year old loved this! Stayed amazed for the whole show! He keeps asking to go and see it every night! Thank you for sharing this experience."

"We just got back home about 30 mins ago from stopping bye. My girls are 10 and 15 and hard to impress but seeing this house was a winner! Hearing 2 of their favorites... Bruno Mars and then Justin Timberlake! Thank you for putting on something so amazing! Happy Holidays!!"

Disney Themed Christmas 

The show started back in 2015 with standard AC lights flashing to music, but I wanted more control over when the lights would flash, so I turned to pixels.  These RGB pixels can be controlled individually through a program called xLights. These Xlight sequences are then uploaded to a raspberry Pi running the Falcon Pi Player. More information on FPP located here.

In this video I show you the transformation from AC lights in 2015, to what the show is today.

The Lights over the Years (2015 - 2022)

Frequently Asked Questions:

How long does it take you to put this together?

To be honest, I work on this show throughout the year.  Testing new props, creating the sequencing; however, the setup begins on Nov 1st with the goal to have everything running by Thanksgiving Weekend.  Take down is a lot faster.

Wow, your electric bill must be massive!

I actually spend less on electricity with this show than when I had regular AC Christmas Lights.  These pixels are all led, they are also not on all the time since they 'dance' throughout the show, and I am only running them at 30%.

Where do you store all your stuff?

Some people store their show in a Storage Unit, but I decided to build a floor in my attic that gives me all the room I need.

I think I saw this at Home Depot/Lowes.

There are some lights sold at Home Depot that do flash to music; however, you must use their preselected songs.  I wanted to learn how to control the lights myself.  If you are really interested in how to put together a light show like this, check out the information on this site.

What Software/Hardware do you use?

I run the show using a single Raspberry Pi.  The sequences are built using the Open Source program xLights.org. The software for the Raspberry Pi is the Falcon Pi Player, and I use several types of controllers.

Alphapix4 and AlphaPix 16, Falcon Controllers V3 and V4, Genius Controllers, and various Differential Receivers.

Each year I try to add to the display, but not just add more lights.  I want to add props to enhance the show.  Most of the props I have built myself, but some have been sourced from Gilbert Engineering or Boyscoyo.  Both of these companies offer models (like stars, snowflakes, candy canes) at a very reasonable cost. The lights I buy from China directly in January.

To view more of my videos on YouTube, just click on the link.  There are two playlists - one from 2021 and the other from 2022.  If you are planning on visiting the show, perhaps don't watch too many online.  Save the experience for when you are in person.

Carol of the Bells (David Foster)

YouTube

The Brown Family Lights Channel