LAKE ARTHUR —  The house at 515 Mill Ave. looks like any other house during the day, but from 6 p.m.-midnight from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day, it becomes a spectacular musical light show with 40,000 colorful lights that dance to holiday music.

This is the second year Lake Arthur residents Poncho and Monica Lejeune have transformed their home — located across from the elementary school — into a magical Christmas scene. There are thousands of lights strung on the house, trees and fence. The lights dance to Christmas music and rock ‘n’ roll songs.

People passing by are able to watch the show from their cars while tuning the radio to 91.7 FM to hear the music.

The music can also be heard from speakers outside the home.

“I started putting the lights out a few days before Thanksgiving and testing them,” Poncho Lejeune said. “It takes two whole days just to get most of the lights up, then I’ve got to run 3,000 feet of power cords to get power to everything.”

Since the lights are LED, the drain on power is not a worry, Poncho Lejeune said.

“Putting up the lights is the easy part,” he continued. “Programming the lights and music is the hardest.”

Poncho Lejeune started working on the music for this year’s display in July, searching for the best songs to synchronize with the thousands of Christmas lights he planned to string around his house and yard.

He downloaded the music, then programmed the selections into a computer to coordinate the lights with the different beats of the songs.

An average song can take an entire day to program, he said. A song with a lot of beats can take two or three days.

The musical lights blink, shimmer and fade to “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” “Frosty the Snowman,” “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer,” “Linus and Lucy” and other holiday favorites. The couple’s favorites are “Amazing Grace” and “Wizards in Winter.”

“You want to pick songs with good beats,” he said. “You want the lights to blink to the beat of the music. The faster, the better.”

The LSU Fight Song is a favorite among visitors, Poncho Lejeune said.

“Some songs are beautiful, but they just don’t have the beat,” Monica Lejeune said.

The light show features Christmas music 6-10 nightly. From 10 p.m. to midnight, the show goes rock ‘n’ roll, playing such tunes as “Back in Black,” and “We Will Rock You.”

“The older kids really like the rock ‘n’ roll,” he said.

Also, Santa makes an appearance on Friday nights.

The neighbors do not complain about the blinking lights, music or increased traffic. In fact, many of them enjoy the show and decorate their own yards, they said.

Last year, the Lejeunes had about 5,000 lights choreographed to the music. They hope to grow every year adding even more lights and yard decorations.

A Santa in a crane was added this year.

The family also added a wagon for visitors to drop off non-perishable food items, which they will donate to the needy.

The lighted yard decorations also feature Santa in a train and a golf cart, snowmen, geese, a reindeer, Christmas trees and presents.

“Next year, our daughter wants to do the whole roof in solid lights,”  Poncho Lejuene said. “I want to add a talking Santa to sing to the music.”

He is also considering doing similar displays for July 4th and Halloween.

“My favorite part is watching kids running around and dancing in the driveway,” he said.

Monica also likes seeing the children’s reactions to the music and lights.

“We’ve had people get out of their cars and dance in the yard,” she said.

They estimate about 30 to 40 cars pass the house nightly. Many pull over for a better curbside view of the light show.

Some 40