A highly-addictive Christmas lights and music show in Wilmette

On Christmas Eve my daughter Val and I headed over to the corner of Cleveland St and Thornwood Ave in Wilmette, planning to spend a few minutes seeing the Christmas lights. We stayed nearly an hour, repeatedly saying “let’s see what’s next” and “just one more.”

What held our interest was more than 30,000 dancing lights orchestrated by 112 channels of computer-controlled animation, the spectacular work of Steve Maris, who spent three months programming it. The musical tracks range from country to traditional to techno, and there’s a low-power FM transmitter enabling passersby to listen from their cars.

The show kicked off on December 16th with a fundraising party for Children’s Memorial Hospital. It runs weekdays from 5 to 10 pm, and weekends until 11, closing New Year’s Eve with a special show from 4:30 to midnight.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all from YoChicago.

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