News

Actions

Last year for Planet Monkman Christmas show?

Posted at 8:19 AM, Dec 01, 2015
and last updated 2015-12-01 08:19:23-05

The annual Planet Monkman Christmas light show starts on Saturday, and the man behind the holiday spectacular says it might be its last.

The show started in 2007, and takes six weeks to prepare.

"It seems like just yesterday we were taking this stuff down and putting it in the shed, and we're putting it back out again. Time went so fast," Neil Monkman said.

The show is made up of nearly 150,000 lights that are computerized to go with the beat of the music.

The show starts Saturday and runs every night through the weekend after Christmas.

Monkman invites everyone to come see and only asks for donations, which go toward bullet proof K-9 vests, which cost at least $800 each.

He said last year they paid for a record seven vests.

"Being able to do that many last year was a real treat," he said.

This year, he's hoping to raise even more money, especially since it could be his last.

He told Four in Your Corner's Lisa Greenberg they're moving out of their home after the first of the year, and they're going to do what they can to have the show somewhre else, but don't think it will be as big.

"You really need to get out and see it this year, becasue it will be the last year that it'll be here, and at this point, we don't really know what, if anything, we'll be able to do next year," Monkman said.

He spends more than $500 of his own money each year replacing lights, plus the spiked electric bill during the holiday month.

Monkman said the price tag plus the six weeks of set up have an even bigger pay off.

"When you sit out here and you see the people, and you see the children smiling and dancing, it makes it all worth while," he said.

Monkman said preparations this year didn't go off without a hitch: he couldn't find a major component to the show, and after searching everwhere, said he had to overnight ship a new one to get here in time for opening day.

If you're heading to the show Saturday night, bear with them, as they won't be able to have their usual test run Friday night.