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BURNS HARBOR — What started as a friendly rivalry among neighbors resulted in one of Northwest Indiana’s landmark holiday light shows.

Andy Bozak, a Cubs fan, lived across the street from a Cardinals fan in the Parkwood Estates subdivisions by Lakeland Park in Burns Harbor.

“We got into a back-and-forth with Christmas lights,” he said. “He noticed me putting up some more and went back to Menards and put up more stuff. This went on for a few weeks.”

Bozak, now a Porter County Council member, started synchronizing his lights to music that can be listened to on 92.5 FM on his block. The Bozak Family Christmas Light Show was born.

Now in its eighth year, the Christmas Light Show at 259 Lake Park Road in Burns Harbor has grown into one of Northwest Indiana’s most cherished holiday light shows, drawing visitors from miles around. It’s become a holiday tradition for many families, some visiting a few times a year to catch the whole program.

The neighbor has since moved to St. Louis. But the show gets bigger, better and brighter every year, Bozak said.

“It’s computer-controlled, with eight computer-controlled boxes and 128 channels daisy-chained throughout the yard,” he said. “It’s all LED lights. I’m just blessed my dad is an electrician. He can help with the show and get the house ready without blowing up a circuit.”

This year’s show added thousands more lights. It was already the type of display that can be seen from space. All in all, it draws more than 8,000 watts of electricity.

“My friends joke if I don’t have it up by Thanksgiving, NIPSCO will call in a day or two because they’re losing so much money,” he said.







The Bozak Family Christmas Light Show goes big for a good cause

The Bozak Family Christmas Light Show is shown.



Joseph S. Pete



The display features brightly lit archways kids like to run under, a 25-foot mega-tree, other Christmas trees and a 30-foot mega-pole in the backyard that lets visitors see the house off the main road.

“Many of the neighbors along the path also decorate,” he said. “I’m blessed with supportive neighbors.”

As many as 10 or 15 cars park outside the house at a time to watch the synchronized light show.

“My wife will come back with groceries, and there will be 10 cars parked out front,” he said. “They’ll applaud and say thank you and Merry Christmas.”

He sets it up every year with his son, Ayden, and daughters Ava and Abriella. They added an Elf on the Shelf, which is moved to a different location each night for kids to find.

The display features many inflatables like Santa, snowmen and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Mice got into the blow-ups while they were in storage in the garage this year, taking a manger scene and a Hello Kitty inflatable out of commission.

Managing inflatables is usually one of the most challenging parts of putting out such a display.

“Sometimes the motors go bad or the fabric loses the ability to hold in air,” he said. “The cruddy part is if there’s high winds, or even medium winds, they get torn up and take a beating.”







The Bozak Family Christmas Light Show goes big for a good cause

Ayden and Andy Bozak set up the The Bozak Family Christmas Light Show every year.



Joseph S. Pete



Work on the show starts in the second week of October. The setup is so elaborate that Bozak usually takes a week off work from his wedding photography business to get the job done.

“I don’t book that week so I’m not overworked,” he said. “As a family, we’ve made a commitment to do this show, so we’re going to do it.”

It’s for a good cause. The Bozak Family Christmas Light Show collects donations for The Caring Place, a Valparaiso-based social service organization that helps domestic violence and sexual assault victims, including by providing shelter to women and children in need.

The Bozak Family Christmas Light Show will host Santa and the Grinch from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday. People can pose for photos with Jolly Old Saint Nick and the mischievous Grinch, who will try to put a damper on the holiday festivities by messing around with the decorations. The family will hand out free hot cocoa and candy canes.

The event is free but donations are welcome. Proceeds will benefit The Caring Place’s The Amanda Forum, which seeks to prevent teen dating violence.

Bozak started raising funds for charity after people dropped donations in the mailbox to help cover the electricity bill. He’s raised more than $1,000 for the Caring Place so far, including $1,966 last year.

People come from as far as Illinois and Michigan to see the show.

“We’ve had people from Chicago to South Bend who come to check it out,” he said. “One year we gave free pizza for the Santa event and had a complete traffic jam in and out of our neighborhood.”

It takes all year to synchronize the show, which features songs like “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas,” a Trans-Siberian Orchestra tune and a “Dueling Jingle Bells” song that riffs off “Dueling Banjos.” It takes hours of work just to synchronize a minute of lights to music.







The Bozak Family Christmas Light Show goes big for a good cause

The Bozak Family Christmas Light Show draws visitors to Burns Harbor every yeat.



Joseph S. Pete



Still, Bozak added three new songs this year to keep it fresh.

“It’s difficult because you have 128 channels, and every channel is different,” he said. “I keep an Excel spreadsheet with 128 rows. You have to picture in your head what it will look like when all the elements come together.”

People will stay and watch for 30 minutes or come back multiple times to try to catch the whole show. It’s busiest on the weekend, especially right before Christmas. It’s prettiest in the snow, Bozak said.

“As a kid, I grew up in Highland. My dad put reindeer on the roof, which to me was going all-out,” he said. “He just threw a couple of things out, but to me, our house was all decked out for Christmas. I just want to do anything to spread more love and joy for Christmas. It’s an opportunity to spread a smile, to give people a chance to enjoy themselves.”

People can watch the light show from 4:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 4:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. It stays open late because the Bozaks have a busy family schedule packed with sports and often can’t make it out until later to see Christmas lights.

“It’s a heartwarming experience,” he said. “It’s great to be able to bring Christmas cheer and collect funds for the community.”

For more information, visit facebook.com/bozakfamilylights/.

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