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Date: 1/5/2022
NORTHAMPTON – After a dim two years under the grasp of a pandemic, an incredible holiday magic show at 199 Crescent Ave. brightened the city of Northampton during the last couple weeks of December.
Thirteen-year-old Alexander Cook, a resident of the city, spent the majority of his 2021 creating a light show filled with a dozen perfectly synced songs, a bevy of animations and many explosions of color.
“It was 20 times better than expected,” said Cook, when describing his initial reaction to his creation. “I was really happy about that.”
With the help of his dad and his grandfather, Cook was able to set this up for the public to drive by and see the spectacle outside between Dec. 23 and 31. The show itself lasted from the moment the sun set until 8 p.m. each night.
Billy Park, a peace activist from Northampton, shared Cook’s light show story to social media, and created a GoFundMe page for him to raise back money for the many dollars Cook had to spend to obtain the decorations and other tools he needed.
“He is a Czar with lights,” said Park, on the page. “He mowed lawns in the summer and shoveled driveways in the winter to earn the cash and gave up his quest for a new guitar to make [the light show] happen.”
Plastered on the GoFundMe page is a four-minute sneak peak of the light show, which starts with two trees having a conversation with one another before the show kicks into gear, and Owl City’s “Light of Christmas” starts playing. The four-minute splash of color and Christmas delight was just a slice of the entire show that ran through the chilly evenings.
When talking about its creation and how he was able to sync everything together so seamlessly, Cook told Reminder Publishing that he uses a computer program called “xLights” to set it all up. “Then you set up all of your controllers and take a picture of your house and put the lights where they are on the house,” said Cook. “Then you can put in all of the effects where you want in the music.”
For 2020, Cook created another light creation using AC lights, which took about a month to set up. For this year’s show, however, he used RGB pixels, which creates a more laborious process that began before he even took the 2020 display down for the winter.
Since Cook is an avid fan of guitar playing, Park put together the fundraiser to help raise some money back so he could one day purchase the electric guitar he always wanted.
“He gave up his savings for an electric guitar to give Northampton holiday magic as they have never seen,” said Park on the GoFundMe page.
For those who would like to donate and may have missed the light show, they can visit the link listed here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-help-pay-for-alexanders-holiday-magic?member=16221213&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer