Christmas Spectacles, NH Style

I've spent a long weekend unpacking.  Every box has been opened and looked at, and I'll estimate that I have 2/3 of things put away.  The remaining 1/3 is primarily paperwork from high school, college, grad school, and beyond that needs to be sorted through.  About 8 totes worth.  This will take me a while, so I am not too worried.  There's also a fair amount of random 'stuff' I need to work with.  But I'm feeling on top of things.  I wish my bookcases were here, though, because my coffee table is now too heavy to move, and the armoire in my foyer has about 300 books on it right now.  I honestly did not intend to ship so many books, including everything from my last two years of college, apparently.  Most of this will go straight back into storage.

So I'd like to take a break from unpacking for another Christmas-related post.  When I was home last month, we took my nephew and niece to do the rounds of Christmas displays.  There are three particularly good ones near where we live.  One is a neighborhood that decorates very well every year, with each house getting into it.  It's pretty, but low key.  And not nearly as interesting as the other ones.

One, which was unfortunately closed when we went, which was very strange, is Santa's house.  A local couple has been decorating their house and land and opening them to visitors for years.  They have hundreds of thousands of lights, every blow-up and lawn display known to man, lots of holiday scenes in display cases, and signs in either direction letting you know you're quickly approaching Santa's house.  Their house is decorated with a huge tree, dozens of noisy toys/displays, and hundreds of Christmas dolls and stuffed animals.  And if that wasn't enough, they dress up as Santa and Mrs. Claus and entertain kids and adults alike every night between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Other relatives dress up as elves.  They serve hot chocolate and candy canes.  They love to tell stories and make it truly magical for the kids.  And all because they love doing it.  They take donations to go towards the electric bill, which I gladly give.  They start decorating in September for a Thanksgiving-day opening.  Santa and Mrs. Claus dance in the street.  The elves knit.  Kids just gape and stare.  It's great.  Words cannot possibly do justice to the experience, and since it was closed the day we went, I don't have any good pictures.  (My pictures from previous years aren't very good quality.

The other spectacle is my favorite.  A guy spends countless hours programming his hundreds of thousands of lights to music.  And broadcasts it on an empty radio station.  So you can sit in your car in front of the house and watch the show.  Or, since the music plays outside as well, you can wander around the property and experience it in greater detail.  There are three different songs every 15 minutes; I think he must have about 20 songs by now.  He also dresses as Santa occasionally and hands out candy canes.  The kids enjoy it, but I think it's more exciting for adults.  So bear with me; I've posted below a couple of videos and a collage of photos.  You can get a bit of an idea, but know that I only filmed the front of the house.  The display wraps around and goes all the way around the house and on the back lawn.  You can hear the kids in the background making editorial comments.

(Update: the videos are not loading due to slow internet. I'll try again tomorrow.)
(Update #2:  one video loaded!)
(Update #3:  both videos loaded!)