Who knew that Christmas lights could be so otherworldly? A Texas family’s Christmas light show caused a ruckus in their neighborhood after many thought the unidentified lights were from aliens.
Chris Hargraves loves Christmas and has a curated light show of around 13,000 lights that shine from his Georgetown, Texas, home. “Everybody knows I save up my vacation time, and they know my vacation once a year is to actually just set up the lights,” Hartgraves said.
The show takes a lot of time and effort to create as thousands of lights are individually controlled by Hartgraves. He often starts in his garage and builds most of the Christmas decorations himself. He even taught himself how to program his home’s light show using computer software.
Many in the neighborhood have grown to love watching the light display. While most know of Hartgraves’ display, apparently not everyone was on board. “Every week, it’s a different show,” Hartgraves’ neighbor, Kay Hood, said. “On the Facebook page people are wondering what are these things that I can see from, you know, H-E-B or down the street, and everybody’s commenting that it’s Chris again, doing his light show.”
Some thought it was Elon Musk and his Starlink satellites lighting up the night sky, while others immediately assumed it was aliens. Hartgraves even had the police called on him in 2023 and said had to verify he wasn’t intentionally pointing the flashing concert lights on his roof at any aircraft.
“I invited them to stick around and watch the show, which they did, which was pretty cool,” Hartgraves said.”
Hartgraves has his lights on every night but the light show only happens Friday through Sunday from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Shows run every 15 minutes and are free for anyone who wants to come enjoy the lights, with Christmas Eve being the final show of the season.