Story By Tolu Salako

Coppell Christmas Lights from Coppell Student Media on Vimeo.

Video By Kiley Bratton

Every household has a different tradition for the holiday season and the Hulcys have a tradition that is quite unique than most.

For five years, the Hulcys have put up their Christmas lights after Thanksgiving at their Coppell home and synchronized their lights with music from a local radio station.

“We’ve been doing this for five years now and it all started when we entered a Christmas light competition in Valley Ranch,” mother Andrea Hulcy said. “We wanted to be different and that’s how we came up with adding music to our lights.”

Many other Coppell families have incorporated music with their Christmas lights every year, but what makes the Hulcys is their choice in music and how they present it to the neighborhood.

“We know there are a lot of houses that do the same thing as us,” father Craig Hulcy said. “So in order to be different, we decided to add modern music instead of playing only classic Christmas songs; we just wanted to be more unique.”

On Meadowcreek Road, by evening, the Hulcys switch on their Christmas lights, and instead of having speakers right in front of their house, the Hulcys synchronized their music with their radio station in order for Coppell residents to watch the lights in the comfort of their own cars.

“My sister and I went to go watch [the Hulcys’ Christmas lights] last weekend and it was really neat,” junior neighbor Leah Tepera said, “We go every year to see the show and the decorations are awesome and I really enjoy how they change it up every year.”

The Hulcy’s main goal is to be creative with this holiday tradition. They achieve this by deciding what elements of the show will perform at a lower frequency than others. For example, they decide what lights will represent the bass and other parts of the songs in order for the show to meet its full creative potential. This year, the Hulcys have incorporated the very popular Korean Pop song ‘Gangnam Style’ as well as various Christmas songs.

“Our kids, [Coppell Middle School West sixth graders Mike and Maddie Hulcy], usually choose what modern songs they want the lights to choreograph with, and this year, they chose Gangnam Style,” Andrea Hulcy said.

If one were to drive to Meadowcreek sometime during the evening, they would be greeted by thousands of white lights, lit up deer and penguins, and a lit up mailbox to celebrate the holiday season. Most of the neighborhood participates in putting up Christmas lights to make their houses look more festive, but everyone on the street admires the Hulcys’ creativity.

The Hulcys, however, use only six channels for their light and music assortments- a lot less than other neighborhood residents who participate in the same activity.

“We know some people in Coppell that use more than 100 channels, and we personally do not want for our electricity bill to go up,” Craig Hulcy said. “We just wanted to make our show still entertaining to watch, but we still tried to keep it simple.”

The Hulcys encourage everyone to come out and watch their Christmas lights starting from 5 -10 p.m. on weekdays and from 5 p.m. to midnight over the weekends.  This unique Christmas tradition is not only exciting for them, but can be a tradition that all families can take part in.