Woodinville Winter Wonderland Begins Thursday Night

Mark and Tracy Zembruski do not believe in doing things small, in fact, friends say they are a bit obsessive compulsive about their project. That zeal and zest for throwing themselves into a project is no better evidenced than by the extravagant holiday lights display they deck their Woodinville house with every year. Thursday night, Dec. 1, begins the season for the Zembruski’s with a special appearance from the Special Olympics Washington’s local team, the Northshore Wranglers. Santa is expected at around 7 p.m. Each year the Zembruski’s accept donations for the Special Olympics, collecting thousands of dollars for the organization.

“The Wranglers are very grateful to Mark Zembruski for his generosity and support of the Wranglers. We are looking forward to a magical evening,” wrote Steven Sanders to Woodinville Patch, Sanders is the parent of a Wrangler.

For the past 14 years, the Zembruski home has garnered attention from the community and the media. With more than 100,000 lights in a display that includes Santa and Snoopy, the Zembruski’s Woodinville Winter Wonderland is hard to miss. The house is on a private road at 23620 NE 183rd Street and the Zembruski’s do ask that visitors be courteous to their neighbors and other guests.

Gazing at the elaborate display that includes 556 channels of light animation and about 2000 carols broadcast from the Zembruski’s own FM transmitters, begs the question; Why?

“Why is not always easy to answer,” Zembruski wrote on his website. “You need to know Tracy and I a bit to understand. Generally, we hold a passion for things we do. Those that know us might say we are a bit obsessive compulsive. I guess we can’t disagree with that. What it all boils down to is that Christmas is the most anticipated time of year. There is always excitement and hope. It is special. It holds for both of us, fond memories of growing up, special times with family. Individually, we both had a lifelong passion decorating for Christmas. Combining our decorations was pretty easy [and] more is always better, right?”

To truly get a sense of what it takes to put on this display, check out the Zembruski’s Woodinville Winter Wonderland website (WARNING: only do this when you have lots of time because reading the how-tos  of this amazing display gets addictive). Here are a few facts on the tech side of the display:

• Woodinville Wonderland continues to be added to, and upgraded. LED technology continues to play a significant role where applicable. Currently the display is approx 96% LEDs, and the Zembruski's try to be as "Green" as possible. This information is as current as it can be and changes up until they get to Light Up for each season.
• 104,079 lights - This is the current 2011 unofficial total. We use a mix of LED’s, and incandescent. Bulb styles include, M6, C7, C9, Mini’s, Floods and Rope
• DMX Universe - Theatrical Lighting. Colorwashes provide the house upwash, a Zap Strobe and Moving Head Lights called Yokes do the roving spot light effect
• 17,041 feet – Over 3.2 miles, of extension cords (that is just the connections)
• 46,868 feet of wire, (lights and cords) That one blew even the Zemruski's away! 8.9 miles! All that has to be strung one way or another.
• 98 Amps total to run everything if it was constantly on, but the actual is less due to the blinking and flashing
• FM Transmitter broadcasting on 101.9FM - Commercial free Christmas music during the day, and the light show at night
• There are more than 2000 Christmas Carols and adding all the time, including some Vintage Carols that "The Antique Christmas Lights Museum" gave the Zembruski's permission to use. All of which now is about 10.6Gb worth of music, the collection grows every year.
• Lights and Music are run by a lap top computer. The lights and show literally turns itself on and off using programs on the computer. The show is about 99.8% self sufficient; however, there are a few items that need to be turned on every night manually.
• 556 Channels of light animation spread across several dozen controllers. That includes a DMX Universe for special lighting effects, and wireless communications. All of what you see twinkling or blinking is managed by the computer which tells the controllers what to do and when to do it.
• It’s powered by 3 15 amp circuits, and a temporary sub panel the Zembruski's call "Santa Power"
• Programming the lights to sync to the music can be time consuming, but, watching the show, it's worth every second. It takes me approximately  8-10 hours per minute of music for a "New" sequence to get the lights timed like you see them, but MArk says he is not the most proficient at this aspect
• All of this is tracked and managed via an Excel spreadsheet to calculate the amperage loads. The cool by-product is all the above information.