Community Corner
Odyssey Fun World Lights up Christmas
In the spirit of the season, the Tinley Park arcade is featuring a nightly musical light show.
is shedding light on Christmas this year. Sorry, make that 100,000 lights.
Starting last Friday, the arcade has been featuring a light show every evening at 6 p.m. on the the side of its building. The show will continue nightly —even if the fun world is closed—through the first week of January.
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“We hope it will be the first Christmas lights display for many years to come,” said Clint Paraday, general manager of the business, which is located at Oak Park and Harlem avenues.
The lights twinkle and dance to music as part of the show. It was designed by Nic Miele, who has been putting on light shows at his Batavia home for the past three years.
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The business will remain open as usual as the lights are dancing about, Paraday said.
“The show (started at) about 15 minutes long,” Miele said. “But it will get longer through the season as we add more songs.”
The lights move to Christmas music, as well as some "top 40" tunes. LED bars display messages, like lyrics of the songs that are playing. Some videos are also included.
People can bundle up for an outdoor viewing and listen to the corresponding music on outdoor speakers, or opt to stay in their toasty cars and tune in to 87.9 FM.
Coordinators said setting up the tunes with the music was a considerable amount of work.
“Each song takes about eight hours to program into the computer,” Miele noted.
Paraday hopes the show gives area residents one more way to spend time together this holiday season.
"Nobody else around here does anything like this," he said. "We hope everyone enjoys it.”
Looking for more holiday news? Check out our 2011 Holiday Guide.
