BOISE, Idaho — Driving around to look at Christmas lights is a popular tradition made even easier by a Treasure Valley man who created a Christmas light map. One house on that map is the Kitzhaber house.
"I've always wanted to have the house that somebody wants to come to," Jeremy Kitzhaber said.
He definitely has that house, with thousands of lights programmed for animations that go along with five different Christmas songs.
Kitzhaber is also an air force veteran and last year he decided to add a fundraiser to his light show. It's completely optional and all proceeds go to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 63.
"100-percent of whatever is donated goes to the veterans' assistance fund which helps veterans in need in our community and the treasure valley community," Kitzhaber said.
Cars pull up along the side of the road near the Kitzhaber house and can sit and watch the show as long as they'd like. There's a radio station they put on to hear the music the light show is set to.
Kitzhaber just asks a few things of those who come to enjoy the show.
"We do ask that everybody that comes to the show to not block our neighbors' driveways, to keep their music at an appropriate volume, once they park to dim their headlights," he said.
William Higginson put the Kitzhaber house on the map...Literally.
William created a map of Christmas lights around the treasure valley in 2015.
"I was looking for some displays to take some friends to and I was just kind of searching all over the internet and finding sources here, there and everywhere and I decided, you know what there's gotta be a better way," Higginson said.
Last year, Higginson moved to San Antonio, Texas, but he said Boisechristmaslights.org will continue.
"When I moved it never really crossed my mind to stop doing the project because I knew how many people just, they enjoyed it, they were relying on me to get the map going every single year," Higginson said.
William says the map grows every year. So has the Kitzhaber's light display.
"I added about 8,500 more lights this year. Last year I just had a small show, but this year I wanted to make it even better. And this is about as big as it's going to get it'll just change from year to year with different songs," Kitzhaber said.
