Our Story • Bateson Family Lights

About Bateson Family Lights

✨ A family tradition of Christmas lights, music, and shared holiday joy.

What began as a small tribute to a family display has grown into a synchronized light show in Swanton, Ohio — with thousands of LEDs, interactive song requests, and smiles from visitors near and far.

📖 How It All Started

The desire to create our display came from my father, who ran a Christmas display in Liberty Center, Ohio for many years. Our family relocated to Swanton, Ohio in 2013 and once I returned from my deployment in 2014, we kicked off our own Christmas display tradition.

We started small with a six-outlet device that randomly turned different sets of lights on and off. After experiencing the joy that the display brought to our family, friends, and neighbors, we decided to keep building — adding a little more each year.

💡 Today’s Display & Beyond

Our 2025 display is powered by five Light-O-Rama controllers providing 80 channels, one 24-port EasyLight controller that runs all three singing trees, and an AlphaPix 4 that feeds the DMX network to our other controllers — all controlled by a Raspberry Pi 3B+ running Falcon Player (FPP). All this syncronized to 14 different songs!

This year we also integrated PulseMesh so visitors can listen from their phones, which is perfect when walking through the display. We launched this website to make it easy for on-site guests to pick their favorite sequence and help decide what plays next.

The 2025 show uses just over 10,000 LEDs, keeping power consumption low while still filling the yard with joyful light. Our biggest addition this year are the 21 red and white arches along the sidewalk for everyone to enjoy.

We already have bigger plans for our 2026 display and are hard at work behind the scenes. We can’t wait to debut what’s coming next!

Please enjoy the show!
~ Christopher Bateson