- April 23, 2024
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With nearly 100,000 lights adorning their house, trees and lawn, the Swathwood family is used to a variety of reactions.
One neighbor drives by slowly, gaping at the lights before driving off without a word. Another drives up, stops to take a picture and says, “God bless your patience.”
The questions and comments the family gets are always similar. “Your power bill must be through the roof!” “How long does it take to get everything up and working?” “Why do you do this?”
But, if you ask Robert Swathwood, the answer to the last question is always the same: It brings joy to everybody.
For the Winter Garden family, the Swathwood Family Spectacle of Lights is a labor of love and a growing family tradition.
The Swathwoods used to live in Laredo, Texas, and that is where Robert came up with the idea to decorate their small house from the roof to the ground.
“(Then) we moved to another, bigger house and did it again,” Robert said. “When we moved to Weston, Florida, we did more and decided to put it to music. We started with a Mr. Christmas music box with music, six channels and 10 songs. So I go, ‘You know, we can do better than that.’ About six years ago, we decided to do the entire house to music. We bought two Light-O-Rama boxes, and that’s when we started putting synchronized music to the house. It just got bigger from there.”
Now, the family has 144 channels with 50 songs ranging from Christmas and pop music to Disney favorites. With an expansive soundtrack and house-wide lights of this caliber, Robert begins working on the programming and synchronization each July.
When he first brought the idea to his family, his wife, Alicia Swathwood, was on board — but with some initial reservations.
“My initial reaction is, ‘What’s it going to cost?’” Alicia said. “‘What are you thinking, what are your ideas, how far is it going to be taken? Are planes going to see it?’ People would joke that when we’d turn on our lights their lights would get dim because of the lights on our house.
“Every year, he’ll surprise us, or me, by hiding things from me after he purchased them, and then he’ll feel guilty and go, ‘OK, let me show you what I bought,’” she said. “Every year it’s more lights. (He says), ‘I need more, I need more, you never know when one is going to go out.’”
The tradition has grown from the family’s two-bedroom townhouse in Texas to the 100,000-light spectacle it is now. Every song is synchronized with the lights down to a one-tenth of a second.
“Each song takes between four and eight hours to program,” Robert said. “That’s all mental. I’m listening to Christmas music in July, because that’s when I start programming.”
As for the physical setup, it truly is a labor of love. The family began testing all the lights in October to ensure they worked and fixed the ones that didn’t. Decorations began going up Nov. 1.
“We have one side of the garage dedicated all to Christmas items,” Robert said. “(There are) three shelves about 30 feet long, and everything fits. We have 19 totes for just the lights on the house, four totes for extension cords and three-quarters of a mile of extension cords.”
New this year is a set of lighted archways, which will be filled with various figures for a display tunnel. Other decorations include handmade starbursts, projections of Santa and Mrs. Claus in the windows, Disney princesses in a carriage and garland on the front door that came straight from Disney’s Main Street.
Despite the ever-constant question of how much it costs to power all of the lights, Robert said many people are surprised to know that the bill isn’t as astounding as they imagine.
“Almost all the lights are LEDs so it saves quite a lot,” he said. “It runs (for a few hours) every day and then everything is shut off. It’s an extra $110 a month. We usually have to pay a water bill right around $100 (with sprinklers), so once we put the figurines in the yard the water gets turned off … it evens out.”
Robert and Alicia’s son and daughter, Michael Swathwood and Brittany Swathwood, are both hands-on in the process of making the spectacle a reality. Even Brittany’s son, Marcus Buelna, and Michael’s girlfriend, Katelyn Murray, are part of the family’s self-proclaimed “Christmas Crew.”
“It’s a great hobby turned into a family tradition,” Michael said.
When Murray joined in on the family’s tradition, it reminded her of doing the same types of decorations with her father and brother as a child.
“When I came in, I was a little surprised other people did it as well,” Murray said. “They’re definitely to the next level (with decorations). … When it actually came all together, it was like, ‘Wow, this is impressive.’ I got lucky coming into this. How much cooler does it get? Not many people do this.”
For the entire family, the best part is seeing the impact their tradition has on those who come to see the spectacle. Marcus loves the lights and playing with other children who come to see them, and Alicia said they often look out the windows and see families enjoying the show as the children dance in the driveway.
“Somebody commented and said it’s now their Christmas Eve tradition to come to this house,” Murray said. “We didn't realize how much it really has impacted (people).”
This year, the opening event has been canceled, but the family will continue to spread Christmas cheer and display its spectacle of lights throughout December.
“It’s rewarding to see people come and dance and the kids are excited,” Brittany said. “We’ll normally sit in the middle of the street with chairs and people come by and talk to us. … Even coming home and it’s on at night, it’s great to drive by and look at it knowing that you've helped put it up. We started putting them up (a few weeks ago) and neighbors pull up and go, ‘Already starting?’ We can’t wait.”
And for Robert, the mastermind behind the Swathwood Family Spectacle of Lights, the way it brings his family together is a reward unmatched.
“To come together and see everyone dancing and having fun and having my family together — it’s worth it,” he said.
