I grew up in Cupertino and saw its rise from a relatively docile South Bay city to the tech epicenter of the world during Apple’s meteoric rise as the largest company on Planet Earth. Every year around Christmas my family would take a quick five minute drive from our house to Oak Meadow Court where a house in the corner of the cul-de-sac had a massive light show that fired in harmony with a music show that you tuned into via your car radio (station 93.5 if I remember correctly– I’m about 82% confident in that). This was the late 90’s/early aughts, and while I’m sure it wasn’t the first house in America to have a musically guided light show, the homeowners were certainly early adopters of the technology and I’m positive that they built every part of that spectacle all by themselves. They had a massive sign out on their front lawn indicating show times and the radio station information (it ran about 15 minutes long each half hour). We’d sit there in our car with a cup of hot cocoa and watch the show before heading home. As far as I can remember the show didn’t change too much over the years, but it was a unique one that filled me with excitement. A cut from Trans-Siberian Orchestra was one of the bands who provided the music that accompanied the light show (it was either “Christmas Eve / Sarajevo 12/24” or “A Mad Russian’s Christmas”– I can’t remember for the life of me which one it was), and that has forever cemented the 80’s orchestral metal rock of Christmas Eve and Other Stories in my brain as a de-facto holiday album that will forever stand the test of time.
I still think about that house on Oak Meadow Court a lot this time of year. It’s the innocuous things from your childhood that can often feel like incredibly vivid memories as the years, little tiny vignettes that swell like a snowball down a hill, until you’re 36 years old with kids of your own and thinking about what the holidays mean to them. My wife and daughter just spent some time together decorating the house for Christmas this past week, and the joy I saw in her face when she grabbed my hand and pulled me to the tree to show me the latest ornament she just hung on the tree was a magical moment that cemented that. The holidays are a special time for children, filled with wonder and amazement, dreams and imagination. Trans-Siberian Orchestra will forever be part of my DNA for that reason.
Standout Songs: “Christmas Eve / Sarajevo 12/24”, “A Mad Russian’s Christmas”, “Old City Bar”, “First Snow”
