Five homes in Rolling Meadows are stopping traffic

What do the Black Eyed Peas, Michael Bublé, Mannheim Steamroller and singer Kelly Clarkson have to do with a Christmas display in a Rolling Meadows neighborhood?

They provide roughly half of the play list for a synchronized light show that is becoming a favorite tradition among Northwest suburban families.

The lights - and music - are coordinated among five houses on Magnolia Drive. Estimates of individual lights range from 100,000 to 1 million, and each one is manually programed, second by second, to each song.

A total of 10 songs play on a loop from 4:30 p.m. to midnight every night. The music broadcasts over 98.3 FM radio, which spectators can tune into in their cars to enjoy the show, but amplifiers in each yard also carry the songs. The better for children to hear and dance to the music, organizers say.

Robert Klarman of Rolling Meadows is the mastermind behind the display. He began the idea in 2009, when he coordinated lights and music in just his yard. He taught himself how to orchestrate the music-synchronized lights, he says, from YouTube videos he watched.

One by one, his neighbors wanted to participate, and for the last six years the show has played across all five yards. Homeowners include: Mark Hubbard and Jeff Lockwood, Jeff and Melinda Pecorelli, Tom and Maura McHale, and Pat and Menelaos Sakellaris.

"This type of display is very involved because it requires knowledge of computers, wireless networking, electronic components and assembly and some construction," Klarman says, "as well as a good sense of music and beats, and light design."

Adding more houses meant bringing in more help with the assembly and electronics construction, but Klarman still programs and sequences the music to the lights.

Consequently, the main command center resides in his yard and wirelessly connects to the surrounding four houses. This complex system started drawing crowds when it began the day after Thanksgiving. Mark Hubbard says that, by next week, they estimate they will draw more than 150 cars per day.

"On the weekends, it's nonstop," Hubbard says. "Sometimes, I have to go out and direct the traffic."

The only thing these neighbors ask - besides being law abiding and courteous - are donations for the All Saints Lutheran Church food pantry, which is housed at the Palatine Opportunity Center.

So far, their visitors have been generous. Typically, each year they donate an average of 2,000 pounds of nonperishable food items and another $1,200 or so to the food pantry. The food adds up so quickly, that Melinda Pecorelli makes multiple trips per week to drop it off.

She doesn't mind, she adds, and says that it heightens the Christmas spirit of their neighborhood light show.

"It is a tremendous undertaking," Pecorelli says, "but once we see the finished product it is so worth it. After six years, we have become a holiday tradition for a lot of families."

Hubbard adds that they begin setting up the displays as early as the first week in October and nearly every day he goes out to replace lights that go out or do light maintenance on some of the individual pieces.

"I enjoy watching everyone enjoy the show," Hubbard says. "I especially like to see the kids that get out and dance and sing to the music. That's what drives me each year."

Lights on Magnolia

What: Synchronized Christmas light display

Where: 4504-4507 Magnolia Drive, Rolling Meadows

When: 4:30 p.m. to midnight daily until Jan. 7

Cost: Free, but food and monetary donations accepted for the All Saints Lutheran Church food pantry

Details: <a href="http://www.lightsonmagnolia.com/">www.lightsonmagnolia.com</a>/