Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
WINONA LAKE - If you're looking for unusual Christmas displays, check out the musical Christmas tree at the west end of the house at 902 Wooster Road, Winona Lake.
Kathy and Richard Barnhart have built a Christmas tree that operates to music - and it doesn't just flash on and off to music. Through an intricate system of single colored strings of light, computer programs and a single watt FM radio station, you can listen to the music on your radio while watching the various colors of lights dance to the music.
About 20 years ago, when Richard taught computer sciences at Liberty University in Virginia, the large church associated with the university asked him to write a computer program to work with a talking Christmas tree. While working on his master's degree at Virginia Tech, one of his assignments was to design and write a computer language. Rich wrote it for the Christmas tree.
When the Barnharts later moved to Toppenish, Wash., the church in Virginia was no longer using the original control box and offered it to the Barnharts. As a result, the control box, which is about the size of a small refrigerator, and the 500 pounds of cable, which runs from the control box to the tree, were moved across the country and the Barnharts continued to nurse it along.
Two years ago, when Richard accepted a position teaching computer information systems at Grace College, the musical tree again made a cross-country trip, stopping in Winona Lake.
Today, the large frame of the tree contains an intricate system of strings of six colors of lights wound around pegs in the tree, with cables, based upon color and location, running to the control box, located in the Barnhart's lower level.
Each song must be transmitted to the FM radio station and individually programmed into a hard drive to drive the corresponding light controls. It takes about 10 hours to program one minute of music.
The result is one of the most unusual displays I have ever seen. The best way to view and listen to the musical Christmas tree is to park in the east parking lot of the Alpha dorm at Grace College. (Alpha is the eastern-most dorm on the south side of Wooster Road.) Tune your radio to FM 89.9 to listen to the music associated with the lights. And keep an eye out for Kathy Barnhart - she enjoys baking cookies and passing them out to those who come to watch the display.
