Reader comments
Dazzling display: Murray man delights in his over-the-top lights

Reader | 7:07 a.m. Dec. 3, 2007

Boy! Slow news day I guess, huh, guys?

A.C. | 7:58 a.m. Dec. 3, 2007

This man has an unlimited imagination. He should be working for Disney or Dreamworks. We are so lucky to be able to enjoy the holiday with him.

just..... | 9:50 a.m. Dec. 3, 2007

unlimited imagination? How about patience and skill and time and money?? not to mention the support of his wife & family....

Wow!

Comments continue below

Birdman | 10:05 a.m. Dec. 3, 2007

WOW! Reading about Marty and seeing some of his videos on his website has almost put me in the Christmas spirit. A big thanks to people like him who understand the meaning of this holiday season and want to share it with everyone else. You go, Marty!!

Casual observer | 10:59 a.m. Dec. 3, 2007

Certainly brings the true spirit of Christmas into my heart.

best lights | 1:24 p.m. Dec. 3, 2007

The best light display in the state is on a little house in Ogden on fillmore ave, two houses south of Oakcrest. This is east of harrison blvd at about 4400 south

At least it was when I lived in Ogden.

Josie McCall | 1:48 p.m. Dec. 3, 2007

Wow! What a talent. How exciting to read about my wonderful nephew, Marty. I visited Salt Lake last year and saw his beautiful Christmas display. His web site shows even greater things. Thanks for caring and sharing for others!

Mark B. | 1:52 p.m. Dec. 3, 2007

Yeah, but can you imagine living next door?? You'd be like Matthew Broderick in Deck the Halls (a movie that was beyond lame, btw)--and you'd wanna kill the Danny Devito guy.

Marlin | 2:16 p.m. Dec. 3, 2007

Sorry to be a Grinch, folks, but how much energy does it take to light up Marty's house from now until Christmas? Enough to illuminate a small town each night, I dare say. In order to mitigate the effects of global warming and excessive energy consumption, compared to the rest of the world, we Americans need to scale back, not increase our carbon footprint. Say humbug if you want, but that's today's reality. Slack off, Marty.

Joan Pearson | 3:20 p.m. Dec. 3, 2007

Everybody has their own thing that they do to excess including Marlin, no doubt. Some people drink. And worse yet, drive. Like Marty says, other folks have their boats and RV's. He has Christmas. And HE pays for it. In his time, his energy, the electrical energy, the whole nine yards and shares it with the whole world for nothing. Shut up, Marlin. Go figure out Gore's over the top excessive consumption if you need something to kill time. I doubt Marty's once a year bonanza is melting one square inch of Arctic ice.

Joan Pearson | 3:22 p.m. Dec. 3, 2007

. . . and warming a lot of hearts.

Anonymous | 3:52 p.m. Dec. 3, 2007

That's great that he's sharing this with everyone! Although, I wouldn't quite say that it emulates the true meaning of Christmas....

An Old Fat Man | 4:15 p.m. Dec. 3, 2007

Marlin - get a life. You sound like you would complain about most anything except about the energy consumption of the advocates of global warming. I doubt Marty uses a samll portion of the energy Mr. Gore uses. You should do a little research before you began to cast stones at Marty. Good luck in getting back into reality.

Anonymous | 4:43 p.m. Dec. 3, 2007

Breathtaking Marty!! Can't wait to come see it in person! Anyone who has a problem with Marty doing this awesome light show should stick his own finger in a light socket and his other in a bucket of water! I can't stand people who are so negative or pessimistic that they would bash someone who would create so much joy in the Christmas season. Light is representative of Christ and symbolic enough to be considered something that is a worthy Christmas activity! (See temple square) Go Marty and family!

Alpine Resident | 6:07 p.m. Dec. 3, 2007

Hey you all who think this is amazing... come on down to alpine and just look up at the hill to the northeast. You will know what im talking about when you see it.... ill just say there are more than a quater of a million lights on this house you can see it for MILES and MILES!!!

green with envy | 6:33 p.m. Dec. 3, 2007

Congrats to you Marty. Glad you are sharing this with everyone and I will be by to see it. I used to go "over the top" for both Halloween and Christmas, but don't anymore because of the vandalism. I have had nativity sets ruined, lights stolen and pieces stolen, not to mention the slashing of all my inflatables. These vandals have ruined my Christmas spirit. I would like to know what you do to protect your display. Thanks again

Richard | 8:44 p.m. Dec. 3, 2007

Looks Great Marty!

As far as using to much energy, it really is not that much. I run a similar display in Utah Valley (search for holdman christmas on google) and it was only $80 more than normal. Because the lights are animated, they are not on all the time and requires a lot less electricty than a "static" or "all on" Christmas display. I am guessing that Marty's display does not use more than $200 of electricity. Thousands and Thousands of people enjoy it.

Merlin are you also against having Lights on at night on Public Tennis Courts? Are you against of having lights on at the city park when people are playing baseball? Do Movie theaters use to much electricty to cool their large theaters during the day when there are just a few people in them?

The ratio of how much Marty's display uses compared to amount of people that come and see and enjoy it is very very small. Here is a guy that uses just a tiny bit more power than normal during the month of December and thousands of people benefit.

Dave H | 6:14 p.m. Dec. 4, 2007

I second that Richard.
I run the display "West Haven Lights" in none other than West Haven, UT.
With over 60k lights cumputer controlled and synchronized to music, my power bill is comparable to my July or August bill for central air usage, so "LIGHTEN UP" Marlin.
A display with 1/4 of the lights running constantly uses way more power that this.
Way to go Marty! We'll be up soon to see this years show.
Dave H

TSF | 11:42 p.m. Dec. 4, 2007

Marlin, I assume you don't run any air-conditioning in the summer? After all, you wouldn't want to increase that Carbon Footprint! Have you any idea how much more power an AC unit takes over the course of running all day, vs. an animated Christmas display running a few hours a night for a month? And in Marty's case, thousands of folks benefit from that energy, not just you and your tree-hugging family... Now lay off Marty, go light your candle and practice making shadow-puppets on the wall for your nightly entertainment (what? you don't actually watch TV and have ELECTRIC LIGHTS in your home, do you? What a hypocrite!)

Stefanie Bohin | 10:43 a.m. Dec. 5, 2007

Great job Uncle! I sure wish i could visit this time of year to see your display wow has it grown since i have been there last. And by the way marlin you scrooge Merry Christmas!!

Becky | 11:13 a.m. Dec. 21, 2007

The musical lighting is by far the best one i have ever seen. not gobby at all very entertaining and enjoyable

Add your comment

Comments are monitored. Any comments found to be abusive, offensive, off-topic, misrepresentative, more than 200 words or containing URLs will not be posted.

Words Remaining

E-mail address: For internal use only. We may want to contact you to publish your comment (not your e-mail address) in the newspaper or for a separate story idea.