The History of Boise Christmas Lights
Origins of the BCL Map (2015)
My name is William, and Iām the founder of the Boise Christmas Lights Project. Iāve been a long-time fan of Christmas and Christmas lights, but this love of everything jolly really came to a head in 2015. I had a friend of mine coming to Boise to visit during the holidays, and he wanted to see some fun Christmas lights in town.
I found it was a little difficult to find the best Christmas light displays, even from a Google search. Search results would show tons of different websites, old news articles, forums and blog posts - some of which were old and had outdated listings. So, I could write down a list of addresses, but it was a bit of a gamble of whether or not that house still did a Christmas light display.
I said to myself - thereās got to be a better way.
So, I decided to compile this info into one, easy to use Google Map using the My Maps platform. Initially, I just shared it with friends on Facebook. My friends gave me tons of thanks and shared it with their friends. Since it got good feedback, I decided to post it to the Boise Reddit page. The map really took off from there, with tons of views within hours, and tons of other Reddit users thanking me for the map, and giving me more suggestions of homes to add.
Little did I know how quickly this would explode - literally overnight.
Going Viral Overnight (2015)
The next morning, I was sitting in class at Boise State, and happened to check Facebook. A friend of mine had shared a blog post from a local radio station, titled āTreasure Valley Christmas Light Mapā. And I thought, oh thatās funny, I just created one of those! Letās see what they have.
Well, turns out they had linked the map I had created! Multiple Reddit users had shared the map on their social media, and it worked its way up to some of the DJs at 103.5 KISS FM via social media. Eventually, all the other Townsquare media stations picked up the map and put it on their websites and social media too!
Thatās when the map started getting thousands of views each day, and I realized that the entire Treasure Valley was counting on little ole me to help them find the best Christmas lights in the area. I was interviewed by another local radio station, and I decided I needed to set up some kind of central page for people to contact me. So, I created the Boise Christmas Lights Facebook page.
Interviews with TV, Radio and Newspapers (2016-2017)
The map continued to be featured on all the local TV stations and many local radio stations:
But up until that point, I was pretty unknown to the people using the map. I didnāt really mind that. However, Michael Sevren at KIVI 6 On Your Side/Fox 9 News contact me for my first in-person interview, and I gladly obliged.
In 2017, I was contacted by Frankie Barnhill from Boise State Public radio to do an interview. Frankie did a fantastic job with her story for BSPR. Itās a great article that summarizes the origins of the map, and how I get things started and maintain it every year.
Also in 2017, Nicole Blanchard from the Idaho Statesman reached out to me for an interview. I wasnāt expecting this, because the Idaho Statesman had traditionally published their own Christmas Light listings, and it was well-known in the Treasure Valley. Many folks had been patiently waiting for the Idaho Statesman to publish their listings, but it looked like for the first time, the Statesman was going to utilize my map on their website instead! I was completely honored.
Nicole wrote a really good, in-depth article about the BCL map, its origins, and more. I also met with photographer Darin Oswald at one of my favorite displays to shoot some photos and a video. It turned out so great!
After the Idaho Statesman article was published, the map gained a whole new level of traction. We started having thousands of views every single day! It goes to show how many people were still looking to the Statesman for a list of Christmas light displays. Our Facebook page hit 1,000 likes on Christmas Day, and it was a super proud moment.
My sister, Gracie, convinced me to start an Instagram account. Most of my interactions and content were still on Facebook, but the Instagram page was a good idea to help expand the projectās reach.
During the 2017 season, I started hearing from a guy named Jason who ran a page very similar to mine called Pacific Northwest Christmas Lights. He and I were able to connect and meet up at the annual Pacific NW Christmas Light Addiction Problem (Pacific NW CLAP) meetup in April 2018, in Olympia, Washington.
Starting to Cover Halloween, Continuing to Grow (2018-2019)
Shortly before Halloween 2018, I saw this post on a Facebook group:
I just thought that was the coolest thing ever. And it turns out that several of our local Christmas light show creators decked out their homes for Halloween as well! Sometimes, theyāll put up their lights for Halloween as kind of a ātest runā before the busier Christmas season. So, I decided to bring the BCL map out of hibernation early for a special round of Halloween home listings. It was an instant hit!
Christmas season 2018 was another successful year of listings, map views, and social media engagement. Our Facebook following was growing, and we started doing Facebook live videos at displays. This trend continued into the 2019 season, where we continued to showcase the best Halloween and Christmas homes in the Boise area. Our Instagram following grew when some notable IG accounts highlighted our project - we gained a big audience from Instagram, who never use Facebook, who may have never heard of us before.
Navigating the Pandemic and Moving to Texas (2020-2021)
Well, 2020 wasā¦ a year, to say the least. In late March 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, articles were posted about people putting their Christmas lights back up during the stay-at-home orders. This phenomenon can be largely attributed to this March 15 tweet by Lane Grindle, play-by-play broadcaster for the Milwaukee Brewers:
Slowly, more and more people started hanging up their Christmas lights:
Boise residents got in on the fun as well! Residents living on Harrison Blvd in the North End decorated their homes to bring some cheer amid the pandemic:
In preparation for the 2020 Halloween season, I moved away from the Blogger platform and launched a brand new website from the ground up. I also announced that I had taken a new job that would require me to relocate to San Antonio, Texas. But the project would not be abandoned - I recruited Luthy Shannon, a well-known former light show creator in Meridian, to help take over the project.
By the time 2021 rolled around, I was able to step back in as the main admin and handle the project 100% remotely from Texas. I did some remote interviews for the Idaho Statesman, Idaho News 6 and KTVB about the project. Luckily, I was able to handle things fairly easily even when not living in Boise anymore.
For the Halloween 2022 season, I was able to collaborate with Brenda Rodriguez at KTVB for their Wake Up Idaho morning show to highlight some spooky homes in the Boise area. They did live broadcasts from these homes, which was really fun! I was asked to be part of the live broadcasts, but unfortunately I was still in Texas at the time, so I wasnāt able to participate myself. But no worries - Brenda did a great job on this!
Back in Idaho, New Mobile App (2022-present)
Between Halloween and Christmas 2022, I moved back to Idaho for a new job, and to be close to family once again. This allowed me to visit and create content for homes in person once again!
We nailed down our social media presence, posting more consistently across both Facebook and Instagram, and started posting more on TikTok in 2024. All the engagements are from organic reach - I havenāt dropped a single penny on sponsored posts to Meta or anything like that.
Something that people had been clamoring for years was a BCL mobile app. I worked hard to make my website and map as mobile-friendly as possible, but people did still like having a dedicated mobile app. Iām no programmer, and I wouldnāt be able to afford a pay a big company to make one for me.
Luckily, I got a message from some local residents - Jack and Josh - who were willing to help build an app free of charge! This would be used for their resumes, portfolio, and school assignments. I was more than happy to work with them on this, and release the Boise Christmas Lights App for iOS in time for Halloween 2023.
The app was an instant hit, and we have consistently worked on updating it with the latest listings. Josh has continued to work on this project ever since, adding new features and tweaking things as we go. It currently has a 4.8/5 star rating on the Apple App store.
For Halloween 2023, I was able to actually work in person with KTVB channel 7, who continued their live shots from spooky houses during their Wake Up Idaho show! I had a lot of fun joining them on these stops.
In 2024, I worked with Idaho News 6 to collaborate on their āValley Lightsā special. This was a very cool deal they did - not only was I able to do an interview with them, but they also went and visited several homes to interview the homeowners, and set up a special webpage specifically for all these interviews. The format worked really well with their neighborhood reporter format.