Menu
Friends of Wanamaker Organ
Celebrating the Heritage of a National Historic Landmark Pipe Organ
  • Home
  • Music & Visiting
    • DAILY CONCERTS
    • SPECIAL CONCERTS
    • CHRISTMAS LIGHT SHOW
    • WANAMAKER ORGAN TOURS
    • BROADCASTS
    • NEWS STORIES
    • THE FRIENDS WURLITZER
    • DIRECTIONS TO MACY’S
  • History & Specs
    • RESTORATION OVERVIEW
    • ABOUT THE ORGAN
    • THE STOPLIST
    • STORE LORE
    • WANAMAKER ORGANISTS
    • JOHN WANAMAKER
    • RODMAN WANAMAKER
    • GEORGE ASHDOWN AUDSLEY
    • LISTENER GUIDE / MUSIC SAMPLES
    • THE ONGOING RESTORATION
  • Join Us!
    • ABOUT THE FRIENDS
    • JOIN OUR RANKS!
    • RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP
    • SAMPLE OUR NEWSLETTER
    • RECEIVE OUR NEWSLETTER
    • MAKE A DONATION
    • SPONSOR A PROJECT
    • NAMED GIFTS
    • MAKE A BEQUEST
  • Contact Us
  • WEB STORE
    • CDs and DVDs
    • BOOKS & GIFTS
    • CAFEPRESS STORE
    • MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL
    • TOURS / JOIN THE FRIENDS
    • CHRISTMAS
    • MAKE A DONATION
    • CONCERT TICKETS
Close Menu
Lord-&-Taylor-Christmas-Light-Show

The Holiday Light Show

Fun Facts and Figures
Past and Present

  1. There are 34,500 LED lights on the Macy’s Magic Christmas Tree in six colors: red, yellow, green, blue, purple, and cool white, which breaks down to about 5,750 lights in each color. It is topped by a red Moravian (or Advent) star. The lights on the tree, the snowflakes, and the snowmen are dimmable.
  2. The rest of the light show has about 65,000 LED lights (the Parade studio attempted to do an actual count, but found it impractical to finish). Colors include red, yellow, orange, green, blue, pink, purple, warm white, and cool white. The LEDs use 90 percent less electricity than standard incandescent bulbs (which were from 5 to 7 watts per bulb in the old show). LED colors are purer than incandescent colors, and cameras sometimes have difficulty capturing the violet and white shades.
  3. The vertical strands have four steady LED colors: red, purple, blue and green. They also have two incandescent blinking colors: blue and white. These blinkers are still incandescent because the blink is in the bulb and is not controlled by the computer. LEDs are not developed enough yet to handle blinking.
  4. The old Wanamaker tree contained an estimated 23,500 lights, many custom-tinted just for the Show in shades of pink and purple, and the figures contained 29,000 bulbs. The show was fed by 1200 amps.
  5. When it was in use, the Dancing Waters (TM) Enchanted Fountain system used 3000 gallons of water. There was really no tank for the water. Rather, a heavy rubber sheet was placed in the balcony orchestra pit. It is fortunate that that sheet never developed any leaks in its long history of use. Restoration of the accompanying Fountain-and-Colored-Light Show on the balcony in front of the Organ case is not being considered at present because a redesign would be needed to protect the Organ and low-lying light and plug-in power strips that illuminate the case. Also Macy’s new Christmas tree is wider than its predecessor.
  6. The original Santa Express train engine weighed 700 pounds and the two cars weighed 500 pounds apiece. The entire Wanamaker light show—minus the tree—weighed three and a half tons.
  7. The original Magic Christmas Tree had 85 individual tree branches, topped by a cone-shaped section and crowned with a five-pointed star. That star had white, amber and blue lights. The figures had 23,635 individual 7-watt light bulbs. The vertical strings of lights contained 5906 bulbs, powered by 40 circuits so that the lights could be programmed to “chase” back and forth.
  8. The total electrical consumption during the 21 climactic seconds when the entire Wanamaker show was lit was a staggering 288,000 watts.  Not everything could be turned on at the same time during the Grand Finale—the power surge would exceed the rated capacity of the feeder cables coming from the transformer vaults in the basement. Although this was a lot of incandescent energy, it was not wasted. The resulting heat helped warm the Grand Court.

Enjoy Hours of Archived Shows from the WRTI Wanamaker Organ Hour! Light Show Evolution—with Christmas Display Review

Related Posts

Wanamaker-Organ-Case-with-Giant-Candles-in-Color-Christmas

Christmas

Light Show Evolution—with Christmas Display Review

Christmas Buttton

Christmas

More Store and Light Show Handy Tips

High-Voltage

Christmas

Macy’s “Millennium” Makeover

Friends of Wanamaker Organ

The Friends of the Wanamaker Organ, Inc.
630 Hidden Valley Road, King of Prussia, PA 19406-1712
(484) 684-7250
execdirec@wanamakerorgan.com

© Friends of Wanamaker Organ 2023