'Pixel Picozzi's' Christmas brighter than ever

The yard looks like Frank Picozzi can’t finish a do-it yourself project.

Giant hoops reach over his driveway like he started to build a carport, only it’s entirely open. Zip ties hold strings of plastic icicles to the fence running along Gristmill Road, but there’s no garland. What look to be three giant pinwheels reach up from the roof, only it’s obvious they don’t turn. And the tree on the front lawn isn’t a tree. It’s a post with wires reaching to the top.

As Picozzi acknowledges, by day, the house and yard are hardly a thing of beauty. That all changes as soon as it gets dark.

Lights dance to music, the tree appears to be swirling and those pinwheels on the roof take on the appearance of fireworks. Images appear in the giant board in front of the home’s picture window, either faces or a toy train pulling along the words “Merry Xmas.” Picozzi’s computerized Christmas show is up and running again this year.

The show, a virtually animated scene created by programming pixels, is a pecan-sized LED light with processor, which can be any color Picozzi likes. He can program them to stay on for split seconds or hours. Picozzi’s computer artistry gets even more sophisticated than lights that blink in time to music. He reaches well beyond the off-the-shelf technology. Picozzi likes finding a new challenge. Last year’s novelty was the fireworks. This year it is the driveway hoops.

Looking to add dimension to the display, Picozzi envisioned hoops, however, he wanted the lights to be diffused. His solution was to mount them in PEZ PVC piping that is opaque and flexible. That proved a challenge because PEX is too flexible to sustain the curving arches Picozzi looked to achieve. They would need to be supported. Picozzi painted conventional PVC black to hide it and went to work confronting the issue of holding the flexible piping to the exact specifications. That took him on a hunt that ended when he placed a minimum commercial order for plastic clips. Problem solved, and now he has enough clips for years to come.

Picozzi may be an artist in programming lights to do what he wants, but he is also a contractor and, as such, is fussy when it gets down to measurements and having things just where he wants.

“Everything is plumb and level and that’s the way I like it,” he says.

In the nine years Picozzi has made his Christmas display his hobby – he’s already started planning next year’s show, which he expects he’ll be building over the summer – advances in technology have turned things upside down. When he started, Picozzi estimates he needed 100,000 lights to achieve a fraction of the effects he can now get with 8,000 pixels. Most of the pixels come from China. Controllers are available but the programs they run require modifications that Picozzi makes himself.

Picozzi has linked up with other Christmas display hobbyists on the internet, where he picks up and shares ideas, but a lot of what he achieves results from repeated experimenting. It’s all part of the fun.

An addition to the show this year is a Santa letterbox. Picozzi urges kids to drop off their letters and reminds them to include their addresses. After all, Santa may want to write back. While there is no cost to see the show that lasts slightly more than an hour and can be heard on 97.1 FM for those wanting to stay in their cars, Picozzi asks for donations for the Tomorrow Fund. He is in awe of the fund that helps families with children with cancer. Last year he collected $6,000, most of it in one dollar bills, although there was a $1,000 check.

Picozzi is appreciative of his neighbors; they put up with the traffic, not to mention the show music and the lights. He said they have been wonderful. The show starts at 5:30 p.m. and runs to 9 p.m. on weekdays; it goes to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. It started this past Friday and will run to New Year’s Eve. Picozzi will cancel the show on rainy nights for safety reasons. Visibility can be difficult and he doesn’t want anyone to get hurt. Additional information is available on the Picozzi Family Christmas Display Facebook page and his own website. The home is located at 75 Gristmill Road.