History of The El Paso Christmas Lights
The Idea
From the voice of Fred Loya Sr: "The history of the light show really begins about one year prior to the first showing. Right after Christmas, I happened to see a video on the computer about a light show somewhere else in the country. It was a small light show, a small house, but it was very inspirational, very upbeat with Trans-Siberian Orchestra music. After seeing it, I called in my maintenance chief and I asked him to look at it."
Getting Everything Together
From the voice of Fred Loya Sr: "We reviewed the video, and I asked, “Do you think that we could do something like that here for the people of El Paso? Here at the house?” The maintenance man said that he thought he could. I asked, “Well, who would put up the lights?” He then gave me the name of the engineer. Then I asked, "Who would program the lights?" He then game me the name of the programmer. I gave him a year to do it, and a year later it all started.
Baby Steps
From the voice of Fred Loya Sr: "It started out small. We just put lights on the house and all around it, and of course nobody came. We ran it every day in December, and the only people that were there were the people that put it up. The following year we added a few more lights, more people started coming, but still there was no need for traffic control, or any of the safety measures that we have in place now."
Free Hot Chocolate and Cookies
From the voice of Fred Loya Sr: "After some of the media mentioned the show and we started to get more popular, I decided to start giving chocolate. I then started thinking about it and said, “You know what? We can't just give hot chocolate. People usually drink hot chocolate with cookies."
Expanding the Show
From the voice of Fred Loya Sr: "Again, it was just a few people watching, but pretty soon the show took on a life of its own. We were able to make it bigger after a while, and were set to encompass the entire block. We incorporated an LED wall across the wrought iron fence of the property and the cypress trees in the back. We changed the lighting to LED lighting, and now we had gone to a different level"
ABC's The Great Christmas Light Fight heads to El Paso
Back in the beginning of 2014, the El Paso Christmas Light show was entered into the ultimate Christmas decorations competition known as The Great Christmas Light Fight. We were ready to win this competition for the City of El Paso.
Bringing Home the Trophy
From the voice of Fred Loya Sr: "It was announced later in 2014 that we won ABC's The Great Christmas Light Fight. I say “we” meaning not just us, who put up the lights and ran the show for ABC, but the City of El Paso. Everyone who participated in the creation of the light show was proud on behalf of the city. We won for the City of El Paso."
For the People Of El Paso
The El Paso Christmas Lights have always been an event for the community of El Paso. Without their this support since day 1, this show would not be possible. The $50,000 that was won from the Great Christmas Light Fight was donated to 10 local charities.
The Grinch that Stole Christmas
One day in December 2016, a man dressed up as the Grinch was stealing the show. First Christmas and now the El Paso Christmas Lights. We loved Dusty (the Grinch) so much that we decided to bring him onto the family. Dusty has long been retired, but his spirit has carried on. The Grinch has made a permanent place at the light show and in our hearts.
Long Awaited Upgrade
From the voice of Fred Loya Sr: "After coming out on ABC’s The Great Christmas Light fight, We started to incorporate new software that was very difficult to to adjust to the lighting system and the lighting displays that we had. "
Complete Integration
From the voice of Fred Loya Sr: "This year we were able to incorporate the new software completely, and if you come to the light show, which I certainly invite you to do so, you will see completely new and different more exciting more vibrant lighting effects than you've seen in the previous 13 years."