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CRANBURY: Christmas Spectacular shines on N. Main Street

By Nicole M. Wells, Special Writer
CRANBURY — While the annual Christmas Spectacular at 128 N. Main Street always looks to be merry and bright (with an emphasis on bright), the night sky just got a whole lot brighter for people both near and far, with the addition this year of a 36-foot, 46,000-light mega tree to the display.
The Christmas Spectacular is an event in which resident Keith Shaw conducts light shows from his front lawn throughout the month of December for the purpose of raising money for the He Cares, We Care food bank at Princeton Alliance Church in Plainsboro.
One hundred percent of the monetary and food item donations goes to the food bank, according to Mr. Shaw.
According to his website, www.cranburychristmaslights.com, all 120,000 lights are choreographed to dance to 19 songs on the nights listed.
If a date is not listed, the lights will remain on the entire time, with no music or choreography. The display will be lit from 6-9 p.m. nightly.
At one of the recent shows, Mr. Shaw said he was approached by a United Airlines pilot, who had apparently been trying to find him for two years.
"He said, ’We could always see your display from a long distance away but your tree this year – we can see your tree before we hit the Delaware (River) over 30 miles out,’" Mr. Shaw said, recalling the pilot’s words. "And he said, ’All of the pilots know your house because we all know your Christmas display. That tree, from 6,000 feet when we’re coming into Newark, is just amazing.’"
At 46,000 lights, this year’s tree has more lights than the tree at Rockefeller Center in New York City, which features 45,000 lights, according to published reports. The tree in Mr. Shaw’s display last year was 26 feet tall and had 30,000 lights, he said.
"It really has brought a lot of people to come and see our display," he said. "The tree is quite amazing. When you see 46,000 lights dancing around to the music it is spectacular."
Known as much for the charitable giving it solicits as for the neighborhood controversy it has engendered in recent years, Mr. Shaw said that he believes this year’s Christmas Spectacular is going much better for all parties involved.
"Because we were 100 percent in compliance in 2013, we were able to get our approval for 2014 very quickly," he said. "We submitted in January what our request was, the Zoning officer came back and we met in March and we had our approval right at the beginning of April."
Last year, a compromise was struck between the township and Mr. Shaw to allow him to continue his activity while addressing some of his neighbors’ concerns, which included an increase in neighborhood traffic, parking problems, and loud music and flashing lights that they said could be seen and heard from inside their homes.
"I think both sides are somewhat happy," he said.
The displays lit up for the first time this year on Nov. 28 and will darken for the season on Dec. 31.
As part of the agreement, the lights will only dance to music for 20 nights, with all the lights being solidly lit on nights when there is no music or choreography.
Temporary police orders also restrict parking for people coming to see the display.
There is no parking allowed in front of the Shaw’s house and directly across the street from their house, as well as in the immediate surrounding vicinity.
Parking is available further north or south of the Shaw’s house and on the left side of Barclay street, according to the website.
Chief of Police Rickey Varga was unavailable to comment on the parking situation for this story.
When asked how donations were going, Mr. Shaw said that the community has been very supportive.
"It’s really going well," he said. "We’re really pleased with the turnout that we have so far. We have already collected $3,200."
He said that this year’s goal is $8,000 but that he hopes to collect $10,000 for the food bank.
A family endeavor, Mr. Shaw said that his nine-year-old son Alexander programmed his own song for the display this year.
"To give you an idea of what it takes to program a song, every one tenth of a second you have to tell every strand of lights what to do," he said. "So it could be turn on, turn off, fade up, fade down, twinkle. There’s a lot of different things that you can do with it."
After going through a number of songs, Alexander picked Roasted Turkey’s version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," Mr. Shaw said.
Beginning in July, Alexander worked on his song throughout the summer but stopped work on it once school started in September. He finished it over the Thanksgiving holiday break.
"It’s tremendous," Mr. Shaw said. "He really did a phenomenal job on it."
When programming a song, there are about 10 million different combinations of what can be done, Mr. Shaw said.
"It takes a lot of work, a lot of concentration," he said.
In 2013, the Christmas Spectacular raised $6,140.11 for the He Cares, We Care food bank, according to the website.