Controversial Old Bridge Xmas Light Show Moves To East Brunswick

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — After more than two years of headaches, police patrols and angry phone calls from neighbors — and someone even firing a BB gun at the display— an extremely popular Old Bridge Township Christmas light show will be relocating to East Brunswick this year.

For the first year ever, the infamous Apruzzi light show on Central Avenue will be held at the Middlesex County Fairgrounds on Cranbury Road, MyCentralJersey reports.

"I'm just done," Thomas Apruzzi told MyCentralJersey this week, of his decision to move to the county fairgrounds. "It's too hard to make people happy these days."

As Patch has reported, Apruzzi and his wife, Kris, have been putting on the holiday light show at their home on 18 Central Avenue for the past 15 years. Every single night in December, the light show went off every 28 minutes, and was synched to music.

However, the show has gotten so popular — attracting about 150 visitors every night, and more on weekends — that last year Old Bridge Mayor Owen Henry and Police Chief William Volkert told the couple they would personally have to shell out $2,000 a night to pay Old Bridge police to post an officer on the street for security. The couple would also have to pay to shuttle visitors in from the local school — at a cost of about $1,000 per night — to see the display.

Neighbors complained for years about the steadily increasing foot and car traffic. The crowds really skyrocketed in 2014, when the Apruzzi family was selected to compete in ABC's "Great Christmas Light Fight." That's when neighbors starting complaining about cars cruising slowly through the neighborhood, taking up all the parking spots for local residents, as well as many close calls with pedestrians walking in the dark to see the show, as there are no sidewalks. Visitors also left trash behind.

What started out a gesture of holiday cheer had turned into a Christmas nightmare. Apruzzi said someone even fired a BB gun out their window in the direction of his holiday lights. Another anonymous person was routinely spitting on his truck, he told NJ.com last year. He said he considered moving to a town that is more "Christmas-light friendly."

Last year, supporters set up this GoFundMe page, called "Save the Lights," to help the Apruzzis.

"I think it is pure jealousy," Apruzzi told NJ.com back in 2017. "I think it's only a disturbance in their minds. I think they should worry about their lives and not other people's lives. You can't make anybody happy."

After their threats, Old Bridge Township never sent the Apruzzis a bill. And it now appears hosting the show at the Middlesex County fairgrounds is a compromise. Tom Apruzzi will start setting up the lights this Tuesday; he started building the displays back in February.

The Apruzzi light show will be held at the county fairgrounds from Nov. 30 - Dec. 29, with shows from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily. It has been renamed the Winter Wonderlights Spectacular, is sponsored by TA Sprinkler Systems and Pixel Sequencing, and there will also be food for sale and photo opportunities to sit on Santa's lap, according to the report.

This year — for the first time ever — the show will also charge an entrance fee: $7 for adults and $5 for children, veterans and first responders. Infants are free.

Apruzzi never charged visitors a fee when he held the show at his house; the show was always free even though he estimated he pours $100,000 into his Christmas lights every season. Instead, people were asked to leave a donation to Home for Our Troops, which helps wounded veterans afford homes.

This year's show will still be accepting donations for Homes for Our Troops, Apruzzi said.

At their meeting this Monday night, Oct. 14, the East Brunswick Township Council is expected to approve a resolution to move the show to the East Brunswick fairgrounds.

Related: Old Bridge Residents Complain About Neighbor's Christmas Lights (Dec. 2017)

NJ Town Cracking Down On Christmas Light Display, Owner Says (Nov. 2018)