| By Kurt Dusterberg|
Eric and Mandy Rogers started out like lots of other couples with holiday spirit. “We both grew up loving Christmas,” Mandy says. “The first year we moved here, we made our upstairs loft into a Christmas village.” Before long, the Rogers took it outdoors.
“We started the first year with a handful of lights on the house and in the bushes,” Eric says. “And then it grew until, I guess, 2015, when we first started the animated lights. Then in 2016 is when it got crazy.” In the years since, their house at 700 Bay Bouquet Lane in Apex has become a well-known Christmas house—a must-see holiday location that grows in reputation with each passing year.
The process begins just after Halloween. Eric begins hauling boxes out of the attic, using his evenings to test the lights and switches. Over the weekends, he begins setting up the display outdoors.
By opening night on Thanksgiving, carloads of visitors have plenty to take in when they pull up to the house. The Rogers’ home is framed in 20,000 lights, with illuminated trees, snowflakes, and surprises bringing holiday images to life. It’s a little overwhelming, but Eric suggests paying close attention to the side of the home, where an 8-by-8-foot gingerbread house mirrors the design of the Rogers residence. “I think it’s my favorite piece,” he says. “There’s only a handful of people I ever see actually looking at it, because it’s not as big and exciting as the front of the house. It does a lot of fun things people don’t appreciate.”
But that’s just the visuals. The LED lights are synched to music that can be accessed from the website rogersfamilylights.com. In addition to holiday favorites, guests can choose from Bon Jovi hits, a Taylor Swift mashup, or show tunes by tuning their radios to 93.5 FM.
Among the more popular items is the “mega tree,” which produces different faces and images depending on the songs people choose. “It sits at the corner of the house, and that’s where you can see the faces and things that get displayed on it,” Mandy says. “The mega tree changes with every song.”
The light display isn’t just for the benefit of Eric and Mandy. Their children, 12-year-old Cooper and 7-year-old Parker, get in on the festivities, too.
“Cooper enjoys it. He helps a lot,” Eric says. “He’s probably cut the time down in half. So that’s been nice.” Mandy adds: “Parker, he loves going out and listening to it and dancing to it.”
While children have always been the inspiration behind the Rogers’ holiday lights, the display was born out of grief. Eric and Mandy lost their infant son, Caden, to spinal muscular atrophy, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the motor nerve cells in the spinal cord. “I guess it was the impetus for why 2016 went crazy,” says Eric. “It was how I kept myself busy. Not thinking about all the sadness, if you will.”
Ever since, the display has done more than just provide holiday cheer for others. Guests can make donations to curesma.com at the Rogers Family Christmas Lights Facebook page (facebook.com/rogersfamilylights) or by scanning the QR code posted near the street. “[The donations] help families who have been recently diagnosed with medical bills and equipment that they may need,” Mandy says.
“So that’s what we do it for.”
The Rogers’ house is on a corner lot, which can sometimes tangle the traffic—particularly on weekends and the days closer to Christmas, when 50 to 100 cars turn onto the street each night. While there is nowhere to park, visitors can stand along the sidewalk to take a good long look or shoot a video. But the family reminds visitors that the display is not meant to be walked through.
The light display runs through New Year’s Day, weekdays from 5:30–9:30 p.m. and weekends from 5:30–10:30 p.m. So drive by and choose your jam, no matter your musical taste.
“We have this nursing home van from Waltonwood that comes around multiple times a week,” Mandy says. “[A staff member] always messages me because we play a lot of newer songs, and she always asks, ‘Can we have the old traditional Christmas songs?’”
And while you’re basking in the joy of the season, the Rogers family invites you to take just a moment to notice their tribute to Caden.
“There’s always a little blue angel in the yard somewhere. He’s about a foot tall, and every year he moves,” Eric says. “So it’s something for people to look for. I like to find a different place [each year] for him to look at the lights.”
