By Seth I. Pickens
Executive Features Editor
Dozens of families gather together to witness the mesmerizing light show. Children dance and sing in the small driveway on Palm Ave and 19th Street with big bright smiles on their faces. This is the scene that the Zipperman household creates every Halloween with its Nightmare Before Christmas-themed light show.
The Zippermans have been running a Halloween display at their house since 2010. According to Steve Zipperman, the reason they first started running the lightshow was to create a sense of community with their neighbors.
“When I went to the Haunted Mansion [at Disneyland] and saw their Nightmare Before Christmas overlay, I thought ‘Woah, that’s really cool,’” Zipperman said. “Everyone does something for Christmas. It would be awesome to have a Halloween display with all the people trick or treating and hanging out in costume, that seems like a real holiday. It’s also an awesome way to give back to the community.”
With over a decade of experience, the Zippermans have gained a lot of attention from their neighbors in Manhattan Beach. For members of the community, like Laurel Duquette, this light show has been a way to usher in the Halloween spirit within the community.
“This family brings us all of the holiday joy,” Duquette said. “We live close and just love having them around the corner. It’s a place where everyone congregates and celebrates. All of the kids really love it here.”
Zipperman, his wife Brooke Zipperman, mother-in-law Michelle Barnes, and father-in-law Bill Barnes, work together to create the display every year. According to Zipperman, working together with his family to incrementally improve the display every year helped it become what it is today.
“You spend a certain amount of time and money every year, and this is what you end up with when you stack that up over a decade,” Zipperman said. “It’s satisfying because we see people who are in high school telling us how much they enjoyed it when they were younger.”
Zipperman says that satisfaction is what inspires him and his family to keep going every year, even through challenges. They’ve had to put in a lot of work over the years to get to where they are today
“There was one year when our software program for the lights just wasn’t working, and we spent so many hours trying to fix it,” Zipperman said. “My stepfather and I spend all day putting stuff up, and it takes about 100 man hours setting everything up, so we try to spread it out over three weeks.”
The Zippermans have become a lot better at creating the light show because of the hurdles they’ve dealt with to make it a success. According to Zipperman, he gained a sense of perseverance that helped him.
“I’ve learned to figure [stuff] out no matter what it is,” Zipperman said. “It was set up later this year, so some people thought it wouldn’t be going up, but it’ll go up every year, until I can’t get on the roof, and I hope my kids will take it over at some point.”
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