‘Stranger Things’ light show on display at Cortland home through Halloween

CORTLAND – Cortland resident Tim Caravia hopes to conjure up a production for the ages when the Caravia Family Light Show kicks off Saturday, this year featuring themes from the hit Netflix show “Stranger Things.”

The family-friendly show will run from about 7 to 9 p.m. and is expected to continue nightly through Halloween outside the Caravia’s house, 687 N. Goldenrod St., Cortland.

Caravia said he found inspiration for this year’s light show in one of his favorite shows produced by Netflix.

“I’m a big fan of ‘Stranger Things,’ the Netflix series,” Caravia said. “This season they use music as their weapon to fight the bad guys. And I really enjoy the music. I’m a huge Metallica fan. So, any excuse for me to pull out Metallica in a light show, it just was perfect for me. I was excited to get my hands on that.”

Caravia said this past season of “Stranger Things” featured a lot of good songs to choose from, which made narrowing down his selections difficult. But he said it prompted him to consider arranging a medley of songs.

“I had to figure out which ones worked best with the lights,” he said.

New this year, the Caravia Family Light Show will feature a projector to display video with the lights.

Caravia said he believes children and families alike will enjoy the light show.

“There’s nothing graphic on there,” he said. “With the videos, I make sure everything’s PG. I know about spoilers, and I would try to stay away from that. The video is pretty generic, but it still tells the story of season four as best as possible.”

Caravia said he couldn’t give an estimate of how much all the decorations and lights cost, as he was merely reusing materials from past years. But he said people might be surprised about his family’s electric bill.

“All of our lights are LEDs,” he said. “Last year I compared my power bills from 2021 to 2020, and this was before some of the inflation that we’ve gone through recently. But the numbers between 2021 and 2020 are only about a $20 difference for the month. So, no, it doesn’t really use a whole lot of power.”

Caravia doesn’t intend to participate in any Halloween house-decorating contests this year.

“I know I have a decent chance of winning something, but I don’t want to discourage anybody,” he said. “I’d rather let a family and their kids decorate their house and enjoy it and have a better chance at winning than me.”

The Caravia family started to decorate their house and yard Sept. 1. Caravia said he still has a list of things to get done before the kickoff for Saturday’s light show.

Caravia gave thanks to his wife for supporting his hobby and lending assistance where needed.

“I would say in many ways she can help me with my creative,” he said. “I can bounce ideas off of her. There are things that are totally, completely her idea. She’s very helpful.”

Caravia also gave thanks to his 6-year-old son for his help.

“We have a couple of the – we call them ‘Home Depot giants,’ ” he said. “We have a 12-foot skeleton, a 10-foot wolf, a 9-foot reaper. We got a bunch of the Home Depot stuff. I can say he at least helps me with that because he gets really excited. So, when I’m reading directions, I’ll ask him to bring parts to me based on their names or how they’re labeled. That’s about the extent of what I can do with him. … He can’t be around electricity.”

Caravia said he doesn’t know what type of turnout to expect Saturday, but he’s hoping people enjoy the show.