Raleigh family's holiday decorations an annual tradition that lights up the neighborhood

The display contains a a giant candy cane, an inflatable Mr. Potato Head, Charlie Brown and more whimsical characters...

Passersby stop and gaze in amazement at the lights, and listen to music coming from the Goldmans' personal radio station, which Annie Goldman calls WGFL.

She says around 100 cars a night stop by their home at 6331 Deerview Drive to enjoy the holiday lights and viewers of the show often have many questions as to how the Goldmans pull of their holiday magic.

According to Annie Goldman, the tradition started many years ago.

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"I've actually been putting up lights my entire life," she said. "You knew exactly where my house was during the holidays, my apartment I should say. And, then when I met my now husband, we kind of got a little more into it. Then we got our house and were like, oh we can do a little more."

Their expansion turned into a display that can now be seen miles away from their home but it has not raised the family's electric bill by much, Annie Goldman said.

"Our bill barely goes up $50 for the season," she said.

That is because the Goldmans use energy saving LED lights for much of their holiday display.

The lights are controlled by a controller that utilizes a software called Light-O-Rama. Annie and Joel use the software to bring their LED lights to life.

They program aspects of the display to synch with songs played through their radio station.

"The most unique song in the display is "Mr. Roboto," the iconic song from Styx that came to life in the 1980's, Annie Goldman said. "I heard that song and my eyes went 'donk' and the lightbulb went 'woah' because I could just picture what I wanted the display to do. And it took me a good 40 hours to program that song."

The couple puts in long hours to make their display shine bright each holiday season.

"We kind of work on the lights all year-round," Joel Goldman said. "Either building new props or testing the lights to make sure they work or repairing what's broken. So it's an on-going never ending process."

But it's all worth it to the couple, they say.

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"It's so much fun," said Annie Goldman. "I come home from work and whether I'm in a good mood or bad mood. I just watch and listen. It just makes you happy. Seeing other people come by and enjoy it, that means a lot too."

Annie Goldman says some people bring their kids every week to cap their night with the fun and energetic light show.

And the light show isn't the full extent of the good the Goldmans do for their community. They also use the attention their display receives to fundraise for the Wounded Warriors project.

"We like to give back where we can," said Annie Goldman. "We do a lot of fundraising for different things over the years but during the holiday's with the display, it's now the Wounded Warrior Project."

She often stands at the end of their driveway with two buckets. One filled with candy canes to give out and the other to receive donations for the Wounded Warriors.