Winona Lake Musical Christmas Display In Sixth Year
Posted
Jen Gibson-jgibson@timesuniononline.com
WINONA LAKE - Looking for a unique way to get in a Christmas mood?
Try a visit to Rich and Kathy Barnhart's musical Christmas tree display on Wooster Road in Winona Lake.For the sixth year in a row, the Barnharts have set up a Christmas display in their yard that is a bit different than most.
Of course, there are trees and lights, but a special computer program designed by Rich makes the display "dance" to Christmas tunes.
Visitors are encouraged to park at Grace College's Alpha Dorm, tune their radios to 94.9 FM, sit back and enjoy the show. And until Christmas, Kathy passes out homemade cookies to those who come to enjoy the show.
According to Rich's Web site, http://members.kconline.com/rdbarnhart, "The Musical Christmas Tree is actually more than a 'tree.' It consists of a conical ('tree-shaped') framework with lights on it, plus many peripheral and yard decorations. The lights are controlled by a computer and change patterns with the music heard from a tiny FM transmitter in the control room. ...
"Because the display (along with this site) is dedicated to the reason for the season, Jesus Christ, we have no popular icons such as Frosty, Santa, Rudolph ... or the Grinch. Sometimes this makes it hard to find decorations. We have considered candy canes and might use them sometime if we get them really cheap. Last year, we got 10 snowflakes after Christmas for about $1 each, for example; we saw the same this year for $6 each. Icicle lights are very popular around here, and hence expensive; swag lights are just as pretty but not popular so they're fairly cheap even before Christmas. ...
"The 'tree' itself is technically a secular decoration, as are the wreaths and such; however, we wanted to have something out in the yard besides a shed with a couple of hay bales - not that there's anything wrong with that, but it won't exactly stop traffic; you gotta have blinky lights."
And "blinky lights" they have. More than 20,000 of them, actually. All run by a control box that is about the size of a small refrigerator and a lot of cable, which runs from the box to the tree.
Rich designed and wrote the computer language that runs the tree about 20 years ago when he was a 40-year-old student pursuing his master's degree at Virginia Tech.
The program originally was used for a talking Christmas tree for a large church in Virginia, and when the church no longer had a used for the original control box, they gave it back to the Barnharts.
Now they use it for the Winona Lake display. Three 20-minute "shows" are programmed into the display. Each show contains music from popular groups, including Mannheim Steamroller and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, as well as some other popular Christmas tunes.
This year, with the help of four Grace College students, Rich added several new songs to the program. The process of adding songs is time consuming, taking about 10 hours to program one minute of music.
The display, which is at 902 Wooster Road, Winona Lake, currently is up and running and will continue through Dec. 31. Lights are on nightly from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Kathy's homemade cookies will be served until Christmas.
