Christmas Videos
2021 Videos
Older Videos
The videos above are not the best quality, as they were taken on our phones. Regardless, we hope you enjoy the videos (though it's much better in person, of course). Our 2009 and 2008 videos were taken professionally by Shaun Sipma, as compared to our other recent ones, which we took with our phones. Our 2008 ones also zoom in on a lot of our many other decorations. We've also included a copy of the 2008 article in the Minot Daily News below.
The Singing Christmas Tree on the roof sings along with "Believe", "Feliz Navidad" and "Holly Jolly Christmas".
2010 (Taken by Rick Lyons)
Snoopy's Christmas Song
Angels We Have Heard On High
2009
Wizards of Winter
Appalachain Snowfall
Christmas Eve Sarajevo
Carol of the Bells
2008
Joy to the World - Go Fish
Christmas With a Capital C
2008 Minot Daily News Article
Lighting up the holiday - Minot couple goes all out with display of lights December 14, 2008
By DAN FELDNER, Staff Writer, [email protected]
It's early December in Minot, and that can only mean two things: Thousands of shoppers are jamming area malls looking for the perfect Christmas gift, and thousands of people are jamming the road to Barry and Judy Olson's house to see the supersized spectacle they humbly call their Christmas light display.
For those few who might not have heard of it, the Olson's annual extravaganza, located at 1500-52nd Ave. SW, which is south of the YMCA down 16th Street Southwest, is a Christmas display so audacious that D-Day is probably the last event requiring this amount of planning and preparation.
Tens of thousands of lights, dozens of inflatables and infinite patience are all needed to pull off what has quickly turned from a simple display into an event people from all over the region look forward to every year. Four arches placed in front of the house are the big addition to the Olson Christmas display this year. Each arch contains 2,000 LED lights that are synced by a computer to flash in time to four different songs. The lights on the bushes, trees and house are also synced to the music, creating a breathtaking sight during the faster songs.
Santa Claus and his reindeer are part of the Olson Christmas display. When it’s not too cold, the real Santa Claus and his elf sometimes stop by the house to hand out candy canes to lucky visitors who are watching the show.
A sign at the Olson house tells visitors to tune their radio to the FM frequency 101.5. With a properly tuned radio, people can listen to the music the tens of thousands of LED lights flash to in the comfort of their own vehicle.
They turned things on Thanksgiving Day and are looking at running the display through Jan. 3, or whenever they get enough time to take everything down. The lights are turned on every night around 5 p.m. and usually are on until 10 p.m. at least.
For more information on the display or to see past displays, visit the Web site (www.olsondecorations.com).
Each year the Olsons come up with something new to add so the display stays fresh for those who see it year after year. This year four lighted arches were added to the growing list of items in the display. Like many of the pieces the Olsons have added over the years, the arches are synced to music by computer and flash in rhythm to the beat of whichever song is playing. The music is broadcast over the FM radio frequency 101.5, so anyone in a car can tune in their radio to that frequency to get the full effect of the show.
"The arches are really the big thing (this year)," Judy said. "People sit there and they just watch them and they love them." "There's four of them, and there's about 2,000 lights on each one," Barry added.
Although programming the arches went more smoothly than programming the lights in the live trees boarding the property, Barry still had his fair share of problems getting the new additions to work. Barry said that when he turned the arches on this past Sunday, to his horror, nothing happened. He eventually traced the problem to a Cat 5 networking cable that had been completely severed.
"I go out there, and somebody had been walking through the yard when it was real cold, and they broke the cable," he said. "So I found the cable in two pieces, and I get in the car as fast as I can go and I get over there (a computer store) about two minutes to five and they're just getting ready to close and I got cable long enough for me to run."
Barry said stores that are open later don't have Cat 5 cable long enough to reach his displays, so he was two minutes away from keeping the big addition to this year's show in the dark that night.
Another problem has actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the Olsons. Barry uses a laptop computer to program the music and light sequences before sending them out to the displays. This year he was only able to get four songs successfully transmitted to the displays. Even though he has several other songs ready to go, for some reason he can't export them.
This small problem ended up helping to solve the single biggest problem the Olsons have year after year - traffic. In the past traffic has been so backed up the sheriff's department has had to come out to help direct. Barry said having only four songs cuts the total time of the show to a manageable 15 minutes. In past years he had up to 12 songs, which lasted around an hour. With many of the onlookers staying for every song, things quickly degenerated into something resembling New York City rush hour traffic in years past.
"To go through the whole thing now is about 15 minutes approximately, if they listen to all four," Barry said. "Even if we do change some songs out, we'll probably take one or two out and just switch around so that you don't get people
staying for so long." "People stay out there half an hour now to see it all twice," Judy said.
The more manageable crowds still didn't keep a sheriff's department vehicle from driving by the house twice in the span of a few minutes Thursday night to make sure everything was in order.
With the unintentional change to the song list, the number of vehicles stopped at the house at any one time usually doesn't exceed six, where in years past a line would literally stretch back to the YMCA.
Barry said people are also getting better about not parking in neighbor"s driveways, and turning off their headlights so those in front aren't blinded by the glare.
Another change they've made is putting literally everything on a remote control. Seven remotes the size of car starters are hooked to a keychain and control the power going to everything in the display. As the Olsons get older, they said they are less willing to tramp out in the snow just to turn everything on. They even have remotes for all their indoor Christmas lights, including the Christmas tree. An inflatable is hooked up to each power strip so they can easily tell if it's getting power or not without having to go outside and see if the lights are on.
While they've been moving away from inflatables and more towards LED lights, there are still more than a few large characters such as Snoopy and Homer Simpson to be found in the yard. The Olsons are reminded of how many inflatables
are still part of the show every time it snows and they have to brush the powder off everything in the yard.
While Judy can easily imagine a day when they scale back the display or even stop putting it up altogether because of how much work it is - Barry starts programming the lights in July - Barry bristles at the notion that his hobby will become anything but bigger and better year after year.
"I don't see scaling back any time soon," Barry said. "I think of scaling up, actually. ... I'm looking at, instead of arches, I'm looking at chevrons now that would go in and out."
"Oh my God. Can you believe I'm the Scrooge now?" Judy said with a laugh. "Because it just takes so many hours and hours and hours."
The Singing Christmas Tree on the roof sings along with "Believe", "Feliz Navidad" and "Holly Jolly Christmas".
2010 (Taken by Rick Lyons)
Snoopy's Christmas Song
Angels We Have Heard On High
2009
Wizards of Winter
Appalachain Snowfall
Christmas Eve Sarajevo
Carol of the Bells
2008
Joy to the World - Go Fish
Christmas With a Capital C
2008 Minot Daily News Article
Lighting up the holiday - Minot couple goes all out with display of lights December 14, 2008
By DAN FELDNER, Staff Writer, [email protected]
It's early December in Minot, and that can only mean two things: Thousands of shoppers are jamming area malls looking for the perfect Christmas gift, and thousands of people are jamming the road to Barry and Judy Olson's house to see the supersized spectacle they humbly call their Christmas light display.
For those few who might not have heard of it, the Olson's annual extravaganza, located at 1500-52nd Ave. SW, which is south of the YMCA down 16th Street Southwest, is a Christmas display so audacious that D-Day is probably the last event requiring this amount of planning and preparation.
Tens of thousands of lights, dozens of inflatables and infinite patience are all needed to pull off what has quickly turned from a simple display into an event people from all over the region look forward to every year. Four arches placed in front of the house are the big addition to the Olson Christmas display this year. Each arch contains 2,000 LED lights that are synced by a computer to flash in time to four different songs. The lights on the bushes, trees and house are also synced to the music, creating a breathtaking sight during the faster songs.
Santa Claus and his reindeer are part of the Olson Christmas display. When it’s not too cold, the real Santa Claus and his elf sometimes stop by the house to hand out candy canes to lucky visitors who are watching the show.
A sign at the Olson house tells visitors to tune their radio to the FM frequency 101.5. With a properly tuned radio, people can listen to the music the tens of thousands of LED lights flash to in the comfort of their own vehicle.
They turned things on Thanksgiving Day and are looking at running the display through Jan. 3, or whenever they get enough time to take everything down. The lights are turned on every night around 5 p.m. and usually are on until 10 p.m. at least.
For more information on the display or to see past displays, visit the Web site (www.olsondecorations.com).
Each year the Olsons come up with something new to add so the display stays fresh for those who see it year after year. This year four lighted arches were added to the growing list of items in the display. Like many of the pieces the Olsons have added over the years, the arches are synced to music by computer and flash in rhythm to the beat of whichever song is playing. The music is broadcast over the FM radio frequency 101.5, so anyone in a car can tune in their radio to that frequency to get the full effect of the show.
"The arches are really the big thing (this year)," Judy said. "People sit there and they just watch them and they love them." "There's four of them, and there's about 2,000 lights on each one," Barry added.
Although programming the arches went more smoothly than programming the lights in the live trees boarding the property, Barry still had his fair share of problems getting the new additions to work. Barry said that when he turned the arches on this past Sunday, to his horror, nothing happened. He eventually traced the problem to a Cat 5 networking cable that had been completely severed.
"I go out there, and somebody had been walking through the yard when it was real cold, and they broke the cable," he said. "So I found the cable in two pieces, and I get in the car as fast as I can go and I get over there (a computer store) about two minutes to five and they're just getting ready to close and I got cable long enough for me to run."
Barry said stores that are open later don't have Cat 5 cable long enough to reach his displays, so he was two minutes away from keeping the big addition to this year's show in the dark that night.
Another problem has actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the Olsons. Barry uses a laptop computer to program the music and light sequences before sending them out to the displays. This year he was only able to get four songs successfully transmitted to the displays. Even though he has several other songs ready to go, for some reason he can't export them.
This small problem ended up helping to solve the single biggest problem the Olsons have year after year - traffic. In the past traffic has been so backed up the sheriff's department has had to come out to help direct. Barry said having only four songs cuts the total time of the show to a manageable 15 minutes. In past years he had up to 12 songs, which lasted around an hour. With many of the onlookers staying for every song, things quickly degenerated into something resembling New York City rush hour traffic in years past.
"To go through the whole thing now is about 15 minutes approximately, if they listen to all four," Barry said. "Even if we do change some songs out, we'll probably take one or two out and just switch around so that you don't get people
staying for so long." "People stay out there half an hour now to see it all twice," Judy said.
The more manageable crowds still didn't keep a sheriff's department vehicle from driving by the house twice in the span of a few minutes Thursday night to make sure everything was in order.
With the unintentional change to the song list, the number of vehicles stopped at the house at any one time usually doesn't exceed six, where in years past a line would literally stretch back to the YMCA.
Barry said people are also getting better about not parking in neighbor"s driveways, and turning off their headlights so those in front aren't blinded by the glare.
Another change they've made is putting literally everything on a remote control. Seven remotes the size of car starters are hooked to a keychain and control the power going to everything in the display. As the Olsons get older, they said they are less willing to tramp out in the snow just to turn everything on. They even have remotes for all their indoor Christmas lights, including the Christmas tree. An inflatable is hooked up to each power strip so they can easily tell if it's getting power or not without having to go outside and see if the lights are on.
While they've been moving away from inflatables and more towards LED lights, there are still more than a few large characters such as Snoopy and Homer Simpson to be found in the yard. The Olsons are reminded of how many inflatables
are still part of the show every time it snows and they have to brush the powder off everything in the yard.
While Judy can easily imagine a day when they scale back the display or even stop putting it up altogether because of how much work it is - Barry starts programming the lights in July - Barry bristles at the notion that his hobby will become anything but bigger and better year after year.
"I don't see scaling back any time soon," Barry said. "I think of scaling up, actually. ... I'm looking at, instead of arches, I'm looking at chevrons now that would go in and out."
"Oh my God. Can you believe I'm the Scrooge now?" Judy said with a laugh. "Because it just takes so many hours and hours and hours."
