Manhattan Beach Man Creates Halloween Light Show in Front Yard

For most, carved pumpkins and a smattering of fake spider webs on the front porch are enough to decorate a house for Halloween. For Manhattan Beach resident Steve Zipperman though, hay bales and plastic skeletons are child's play.

Close to a year in the making, Zipperman has transformed his front yard at the corner of Palm Avenue and 19th Street into a Halloween wonderland complete with a 15-minute synced music and light show to the theme of Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas.

Belting out Halloween favorites such as "Monster Mash" and Michael Jackson's "Thriller," Zippermans nightly shows involve programming 16 separate light sets to sync with the music and light up his decorations. In addition, an LED pumpkin was also programmed to lip sing along with each song.

"I started thinking about it in November last year and started actually executing on it in June," said Zipperman. "When I first started, I never thought I would have so many hours into it."

Zipperman, who runs an outsourcing business by day, said that he spends a good chunk of time flying from Los Angeles to Europe and Asia. Rather than take advantage of the on-board entertainment, Zipperman said he opted instead to start learning the complicated software used to program his whole show.

"I have seen all the (in-flight) movies," he joked.

Zipperman said that his motivation for investing so much time and money into his Halloween decorations is the reaction he gets from the kids who stop by.

"There will be times when there are 30 people out here at 6:30 and you go sit in the window and look out at them and you see the kids smiling and dancing and then hear them at the end applauding," Zipperman said. "They are looking at everything; their eyes are really big; they are smiling... It is all about the kids," he added.

When Halloween night rolls around on Wednesday, Zipperman said trick-or-treaters will be winding down his front walkway to catch a glimpse of the spectacle.

Last year, Zipperman said he handed out around 1,200 pieces of candy and expects to hand out close to 2,000 pieces this year.

Leading up to Halloween, Zipperman's 15-minute shows will run on the hour and half hour Monday through Thursday from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. From Friday through Sunday, the shows will run at the same intervals from 6:30 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.

From here, Zipperman hopes his show will only grow bigger.

"This is the biggest year and every year will be bigger," Zipperman said. "I'll tell you what I would love some day... You know all those houses that everyone knows to go drive by for Christmas?" he asked. "It would be cool to eventually get that for Halloween."