Neighborhood kids had fun this past season

The neighborhood kids have had fun hanging with us during this year's display. Here's Amanda in the nativity scene.

Here are the Singh girls posing for the 2008 photo

Here are Tony and Sue's grandchildren from out of state.

A Christmas Dog and Ideas for 2009

Here's our cute neighbor dog, Bell. She had fun posing as a reindeer in front of the garage display this year.

I've been getting really excited about a few scenes for next year's display. I really loved this year's snowman and cardinal display.

• 101 Dalmations scene ...a trees or a train
• Light bulb farm scene
• Disney scene...have a bunch of stuff already, but want to glitter and glue together 3 balls to make a mickey shaped ornaments. Maybe Fantasia hat at top with brooms all over.
• South Pole scene...in honor of my brother who is in Antartica
• Muppets scene...
• Model train set(s) mounted to ceiling or wall
• Add a gardening scene...maybe around train with bonzai or other
• Silver and white feather Christmas tree
• Snow village scene (ski lift, snowboarders, ice skaters)
• Water scene in village scene (maybe with sm. scale waterfall)
• Pulled back curtain made of light strands

Lost and Found: Credit Card

We have been very busy the past few days. Just wanted to quickly say that we found a credit card in the front yard tonight. I think I know who it belongs to...if you lost one and can identify the card, please email me.


Here's a quick photo of a South Pole scene from a local Christmas village at Helping People Succeed. Pretty nice.

Also, I have not kept up with my emails over the past 3 days, but I will read them all tomorrow. Take care everyone and happy New Year!!!!!

Mario Brothers Christmas Lights

This one is for my brother Joe and all our friends who graduated high school in the 90's.

Copeland Christmas was on the local news

The local news crew came out to the house the other day. It was so fun. One of the songs is being featured on their website.

If anyone knows how to get the video from their website to my computer let me know.

I dropped off the Toys For Tots

I loaded up all the toys to drop off to Toys For Tots. We ended up collecting over $575 cash and a trunk of toys. Thank you again to everyone who helped us exceed our expectations.

Uploaded Videos of Copeland Christmas

I took video of the light display the other day. I just finally uploaded it to Youtube and put links on our website, CopelandChristmas.com

Here's a photo of the Head Candycane Elf and myself the other day.

I want to send a special thank you to visitors who generously donated toys or money to Toys For Tots.
The Brimlow Family
Gunner's Family
The Dodge Family
Mitch and his Family
The Waldbauer Family
The Bach Family
The Serafini Family
The Roberts Family

So many other families have donated to our Toys For Tots bin. We thank each of you. I will take photos when I drop off the toys tomorrow.

Revised Some Songs Today

Today, I found time to tweak two animation files. I amplified the sound clip that plays during the show and I think I'm going to have it play twice every 20 minutes instead of once.

I also modified the Hippo song. I've made it a much "brighter" song. Before, it didn't have the roof or 4 palms lit up. The north poles didn't light up often either. I like it much better now.

By the way, my husband and I did all the programming and set-up this year without Joe's help. Joe is my brother, who we dubbed the Lead Engineering Elf. He has taken a contract in Antartica, very close to the South Pole. So, in Joe's honor, we have changed the name of our north poles to "South Poles." The south poles line the front yard and have rope light connecting them.

Last night, I took videos of the display, so later today, I'll take the time to dub in the music (it was so windy last night that you can't hear the music) and upload the videos to Youtube. Click here for videos of last year's video.

The Finished Snowman Scene

How does something look warm/cozy, yet also icy at the same time?

This snowman scene has two sets of blue lights with white wires. I mounded 2 bags of snow on top of the lights, then put some glittered glass music notes on top of the snow. The center snowman came from Target last year during the sales. He looks like he's melting and everyone loves him. The large snowman on the left was an anniversary gift from John (year #2 is cotton).

Village Under the TV

I had some time to take photos of the living room village scene this evening. I think the camera is working good again.

I get big sheets of styrofoam at HD and just break it apart to make little ledges like this. I used an empty flower vase as a pedestal in this photo. We have one of those ambilight televisions, so the white glow of the tv against the gray wall looks almost purple.

All the kids like the fort. I finally changed the flag to say "Matthew's Hideout" in honor of my brother. Now I just need to straighten that tree. I

We've Had Some Special Visitors

John has done a fantastic job of greeting visitors, handing out candy canes, and fixing blown bulbs this year. Since I've been in evening classes at the local university this season, he's been updating me on some of the special visitors I've missed the past few weeks.

Here are some highlights from the past few weeks...

Last night, we had a group of cub scouts. John enjoyed having them come to the house. Last week, we had a local couple stop by and ask if they could make a donation to Toys For Tots in our name. Dozens more people have donated made donations recently.

We had a family drive about 40 minutes to see our house lastnight. They remembered seeing the decorations in Palm Beach Gardens 5 years ago when my brother- and sister-in-law were doing it.

More to come later...it's 5:20, so I've got to go sweep the floors and put out the cookies for tonight's crowd.

The Traffic is Getting Heavier

Here at Copeland Christmas, we sit outside nightly and greet visitors. Lastnight was pretty busy, so we ordered a pizza, poured a glass of punch and had some fun.

The neighbors come over with their golf carts (decorated with lights) and the local kids began their yearly tradition of counting how many Santa's and nutcrackers they can find around the house. Lastnight, one child counted 25 nutrackers while another counted 26. They said they counted over 830 Christmas trees (including the ones printed on the wrapping paper that I used to wrap all the hanging paintings).

Fun on Thanksgiving

Kapow! Slap! Wow!

Poor John got his lights punched out. I channelled Chuck Norris for this one.

We had so much fun at my inlaws on Thanksgiving. We decided to put the camera on sports mode and take some trampoline photos. They turned out great. I can't wait to go back and do it again.

The 2008 Garage Display

Here is the 2008 Copeland Christmas Garage Display.


Visit CopelandChristmas.com for links to the outdoor animated light display. It features lights that have been custom programmed to favorite Christmas music.

The 2008 Display is Open

I'll have to get video and photo tonight. Here's a quick shot of the garage lastnight. This is part of the gingerbread mountain. You can see the train tracks and the USA tree in the background.

We're so excited. A cold front is coming through now, so it will be nice and cold tonight. The current temp is 58 (it fell 3 degrees in the last half hour)! Lastnight we had a lot of people come by and mention they came last year and were excited to see the lights from the road again this year.

It's Raining! The lights are off

It poured today and we can't light up. Things are just too wet to be safe. I see people driving by and I feel so bad. Please come back tomorrow everyone.

-Danielle Copeland

The Mega Tree is Up

The mega tree took 4 hours to put up this year. John had his brother, son, and nephew helping him. This is their second year doing the mega tree.

The best part of today's construction was that they had fun putting it together! It's made from electrical conduit, rebar, a flagpole, and a few other homemade parts. We're having wind gusts of 30 mph right now, and the mega tree is doing just fine. The inflatable blew off the roof and all our blowmolds blew over though. The full trash can fell into the pool and all the cat5E cables just got soaked. Argh.

The Living Room and Kitchen

I realized that I have a lot of close-up photos of specific scenes, but not many macro scenes of whole rooms. Here are two.

Even though we haven't officially opened up the house to guests yet, we still turn on the lights each night and enjoy them ourselves.

It's been fun documenting the whole process for another year. John makes fun of me because he and I are the only ones that read the blog. Oh well :)

Our Vintage Scene in the Dining Room

I finished the vintage scene about a month ago, but I've been adding onto it each time I find come across a vintage piece.

This is one scene which I can stare at for hours. There's a large silver tree with vintage ornaments from mine and John's childhood...old kermit the frogs...etc. Overlooking the scene are the three carolers that I love. You can't see them in this photo, so look here.

Once of John's outdoor scenes

John's got the entire backyard done now. He's also got the whole roof done and 3 of 4 palms in the front yard done.

Today is Nov 25th and Thanksgiving is in two days. We should have everything done in another few days! I nearly finished the garage two days ago. I have just a few more final touches and that will be done! It turned out cute.

I Finished the "Twas the Night" Scene

I just love this 'Twas The Night scene. Chase and Bella lent me their large book and their mom helped with me on the ladder putting the scene together. It probably took a good 8 hours to complete the scene, but I spread out the time over a couple weeks.

I printed little quotes from the book and hung them around different parts of the scene.

There's a night time scene, a chimney scene, a stocking scene, a large reindeer scene (not shown) and a stirring mouse scene.

Today, I set up the little outdoor bar scene. I used our cork collection, ice bucket, empty bottle, toy train, and Santa.

It turned out pretty cute. The santa is holding onto the bottle and has a cork stuffed in his stocking.


This cork collection has been a real team effort. We have to thank two of our neighbors for donating to our collection over the past year. Once we collect enough corks, we're planning on making a cork wreath to hang in the living room. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Tenney for the cork wreath idea.