Greg Castiglione

Having a technical background in electronics and as the father of boys, I felt that this hobby was perfect for our family.  When I started this hobby many years ago I knew that this would be something that our whole family could grow into and be proud of.  It’s now my little way of giving back to the community.

Over the years as the light show grew, I taught my sons about the science and technology running the light show. This allowed them to take on more responsibilities which left me with more time for long term planning and future design issues.  I dedicate most of my time now to researching into our ‘next’ year show and how it can surpass our current year show. Technology is always changing but having long term goals and ‘balancing’ current technology with upcoming more expensive newer technology has allowed us to grow incrementally every year. With long term goals, it takes approx 18 months to incorporate newer designs into our Christmas light show. Everything has to be balanced out.  As procurement of lights and computer hardware is an expensive and on-going process, we make intelligent changes for this year show that also affects all subsequent years shows. 

Now my helpers practically do everything from programming the songs and building the ‘elements’ to installing and removing the lights in the show. I’m proud to say that very little has been ‘farmed out’. From initial design to a completed successful show it’s all been done ‘in house’ by my family.  In the process, they learned a lot of useful skills in various sciences that they take with them as ‘life lessons’.

I still oversee all the technical issues for safety and design but look forward one day when they have a better Christmas light show in their homes and I just visit. I do see that day coming and I will be very proud of them when that happens.

Joey Castiglione

My name is Joey Castiglione and I am the senior programmer for the display. I am 18 years old and currently studying Aeronautics and Airport Management at the University of North Dakota.

My primary role for the light show is to choreograph the lighting to the music. I actually make the lights ‘dance’. I tell every light (we have 100,000) exactly what to do at every moment throughout each song.  On average one minute of music will take three or four hours to program due to the complexity of our display. We have over 450 LOR channels.

In 2011 My dad and I both traveled to Gatlinburg Tennessee along with 1000 other Christmas light fanatics for the annual Christmas Expo conference sponsored by www.PlanetChristmas.com. It was there, that www.Lightorama.com gave a 2 day seminar on their software. That’s where I learned the basics of Christmas light programming. I designed all 4 sequences or songs for our 2011 display and all 10 sequences for the 2012 display.

Living in North Dakota is both a blessing and a curse. First I don’t ever have to hang a single light which is very nice but also it is somewhat difficult to convey ideas or solve problems over the phone. I plan to continue mastering LOR software and program displays not only for our family but for churches, businesses or other venues. I thoroughly enjoy the year round job of planning and programming and it is always such a huge joy to see the success of the display. I hope everyone enjoys the show. Merry Christmas everyone!

Nancy Castiglione

Nancy is the matriarch of the Castiglione family. She mostly plays behind the scenes supporting roles such as feeding the hungry workers, keeping their clothes clean and providing first aid for the occasional mishaps. She also functions as the Compliance or Safety Officer, making sure that they don’t fall off ladders, hold live wires while standing in puddles of water, or strangling themselves in the miles of light strands.

Nancy is generally the one who takes care of all of the rest of Christmas, from shopping, wrapping, baking, mailing, and entertaining.

If you drive by after Christmas, she will be out there helping with the take-down and clean-up process. That’s usually a lot easier!

Nancy is the reason you are here. Please be sure to thank her if you get a chance.