Naperville teen’s passion for lights grows into Halloween, Christmas spectacle

Elliott Berck has always been drawn to lights — so much so that all he wanted for Christmas growing up was touch lights for the cabinet of his play kitchen.

“For whatever reason, as a kid, I was always looking up whenever I entered a new room. I always looked up at the lights to look at them and see if there’s one burnt out,” the 18-year-old said.

That interest in lighting is something Berck would chase, leading him to create an elaborate Halloween and Christmas light show in middle school for his Naperville home at 10S287 Alan Road.

This year’s Halloween display includes a 13-minute show that features pixelated pumpkins and skulls singing to everything from a remix of Andrew Gold’s “Spooky, Scary Skeletons” to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire.” Flashing lights change color throughout the show and match the beat of the song playing.

Both displays have drawn thousands of viewers since their debuts in 2020. But this year’s Halloween display is his best yet, according to Berck’s father.

“His programming gets better every year,” Matthias Berck said. “It’s just funny how we didn’t change much over the years, just a little bit. But those little changes and the programming changes made it better every year.”

Elliott Berck said before he started decorating the outside of his home for light shows, he was playing around with lighting in his basement. That included hanging red-and-white Christmas lights when it wasn’t Christmastime and a DJ light pointing at a white cabinet backdrop.

“He was big into basement shows,” Berck’s mother, Megan, said. “Him and his sister are involved in music. They’re both percussionists. He was a guitar player too, so (they were) kind of like forcing everyone down to the basement to watch them perform and then he would always illuminate every show.”

It wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that Berck would take his lights show outside. At the time, he was a 12-year-old student at Gregory Middle School and students were encouraged to pursue an independent passion project as part of their school work for the remote learning year.

“My mom was actually the one that suggested me to do that as my project because I was gonna do some random, like, social studies map thing, and instead she’s like, ‘Oh, you should totally do your show,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s a good idea,’” he said.

His Halloween lights show that first year was only three minutes long and used traditional Christmas lights that he programmed to blink on and off. While music went along with the show, the blinking lights did not change colors.

But the project was still a hit — so much so that his teacher showed a video of it to the school’s principal, who then sent the video to Adrian Talley, the then-superintendent for Indian Prairie School District 204.

“I had no idea that they were, like, sending it up through the chain,” Berck said. “And then all of a sudden, my parents come in one day during the remote learning and they’re like, ‘Oh, (Talley’s) on the phone. He wants to talk to you.’”

After a successful first Halloween lights show — and a Christmas lights show that same year — Berck knew he wanted to improve his display. He started mowing lawns to earn a little extra cash and invest in commercial-grade LED Christmas lights. Matt Baker, who used to put on his own light show in the Brookdale neighborhood, served as a mentor and even donated lights for Berck to use.

“At some point in the Halloween show in 2021, I was outside and my neighbor was like, ‘How do you do all this? This is really cool,’” Berck said. “I explained to him how it all connects and how it all worked, and he was like, ‘OK, what do I need to get to do this myself?’”

A week later, his neighbor bought his own gear and the two had an idea: connect the houses together to do a dual lights show for Christmas.

“That was right around the time when the Naperville Trolley Tour was scouting for their Christmas shows, and she had somehow found me and was coming by. The cable to connect the two houses literally came in from Amazon an hour before she stopped by, so by the time she was there and we pressed play for her, that was like the first time we were seeing both houses too,” Berck said.

They’ve done dual light shows for Christmas ever since.

Berck has also improved his programming skills over the years. Between working as part of the auditorium crew for Neuqua Valley High School and watching YouTube videos, he learned how to better sync lights to music and use pixelated light art to create singing pumpkin and skeleton heads.

Although Berck is now a college freshman studying lighting design at the University of Cincinnati, he is still involved with his Naperville lights show. His dad was responsible for physically putting up the lights this year, but Berck still controls the programming side through a VPN. That means that he can start the show at any time from the comfort of his dorm room and troubleshoot any technical issues.

“I always did it because it was fun to do,” he said. “Like I enjoyed doing it, but now just because of how it’s grown so big and so many people are looking forward to it, I kind of do it for the community because I know plenty of children would be upset if I didn’t do it.”

The Halloween lights show runs from 6-10 p.m. daily through Halloween. The Christmas show will begin the day after Thanksgiving and runs through New Year’s. Those unable to see the display in person can view a video of it at youtube.com/watch?v=qveIA7UelmY.

cstein@chicagotribune.com