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LAYTON -- Christmas trees synchronized to music, thousands of additional lights, and a lighted drive-through entryway will be taking Layton's holiday light display in a different direction this holiday season.
Since the end of September, city crews have been putting up "The Lights Before Christmas" holiday display in Layton Commons Park, City Park Superintendent Brock Hill said.
The display will be switched on at 5:30 p.m., Nov. 23, after a short program in the Centennial Ed Kenley Amphitheater, 403 N. Wasatch Drive.
This year, motorists driving through the display will literally be going in a new direction, reversing the flow of traffic through Constitution Circle to view some Christmas tree lights synchronized to music.
"Kind of backward of what they have been going," he said. "There will be directional signs."
The display will also offer a new lighted entryway for visitors.
The additions to the holiday light display, combined with the 140 lighted figurines to be placed in the park and outside City Hall and the police department, put the total number of lights in the display at about 260,000 lights, Hill said.
"We hope to expand every year," he said.
Despite a tight budget because of the recession, the city's parks budget has a line item budgeted amount allowing the department to either add more lighting or additional figurines to the holiday light display.
This year, the city budgeted a total of $10,000 for the display, $8,000 of it for lights and $2,000 for three-dimensional figurines, said City Finance Director Steve Ashby.
"We know there are folks out there that will (say) 'You're crazy,'" Hill said.
But for the 50,000 visitors who come to see the lights every year, he said, it is a lot of fun.
"We really enjoy it," Hill said.
Mayor Steve Curtis said the additional cost of the display is minimal in relation to the populace the lights will serve.
This year, the parks department added synchronized Christmas tree lighting as a result of the Davis Arts Council's donating the electronic equipment needed to make it happen.
"Also, the thing that will make it more enjoyable, is that it will be more spread out, allowing more people to experience the lights in a broader sense," Curtis said.
The display in the past has been on the west side of Constitution Circle because that is where the power source has been, he said. The city has since installed additional power sources in the circle, allowing this year's display to be spread out.
"It will seem bigger, but it's not," Curtis said. "There will be a few additions that we put in it.
"I think the people will enjoy what is being done there," Curtis said.
The city has been offering a holiday light display since the late 1980s.
