The Burton Family of ABC’s The Great Christmas Lights Fight Talks Twinkling Lights, Faith, and Holiday Fun

Rodney and Audra Burton really know how to light up the holiday season. For the last eight years, the Valrico couple has been entertaining people throughout the Tampa Bay area and beyond with their incredible synchronized Burton Family Light Show after being inspired by a trip to Disney's Hollywood Studios. Over the years, crowds have been drawn to the home for its stunning display of lights and Christmas decorations that blanket the property and sparkle to the sounds of music.

And it's not just local folks who've come out to check out the show. The home caught the attention of ABC back in 2023, which featured the couple on their holiday series, The Great Christmas Lights Fight.

Rain or shine, the Burtons begin setting up their display in October to have it all ready for the Christmas season. Even when the threat of a hurricane forced them to tear down and re-do their lights right before The Great Christmas Lights Fight taping, those lights were still shining bright by the time the holiday season kicked in.

With this year's holiday season in full swing, we thought it would be fun to catch up with Rodney and Audra to learn what goes into creating the spectacular display and what inspired them to create their now-famous holiday lights show.

What sparked the idea to create a holiday light show?

Rodney: I said no to Christmas lights for 25 years. And then Audra took me to see the Osbournes Family Christmas Lights over at Hollywood Studios. Their last season was in 2015, and I had never seen them.

Audra: He doesn't really want to go to Disney, but I said, “we're going, I don't care what you say!”  And then we went. And he's like, “OK, we can go buy some Christmas lights.” So, the next day we went out and bought Christmas lights, not the ones that we have today, just regular lights and blow ups for a few years.

And then one of his friends was doing synchronized lights and he said he wanted to know how to do that too. And the next year, that's what we did.

How long did it take you to learn how to synchronize them?

Rodney: It's split into two different pieces. She does all of the synchronization for the music and then I do the setup and push most of the lights and build the controllers and all of that good stuff.

Audra: He sets the whole show up outside by himself for the most part. I help with a couple of big pieces and then some of the big heavy things he has to have a couple of friends come over and help him.

But as far as learning how to sequence, we belong to organizations out there that hosts Christmas light conferences. You go and you take classes, and you learn from people who do it. So that's pretty much how I went about learning it is I went to these conferences, met people and really tried to learn how to do all this.

We've met so many great people through just through the Christmas light community all across the United States and even across the world. We know people from England and Romania, Australia – it's amazing.

Do you have a crew that helps you?

Rodney: I set it all up, ninety-five percent of it by myself. I wire it all up one hundred percent by myself. And I tear it down ninety-five percent by myself. The only thing we have to get help with is the really big things. Like we've got moving heads, like you see at concerts. We've got eight poles that are on the roof. I get help to set those up and take those down. And then we've got panel screens.

That's the enjoyment part of it. The other half of it is the story behind it. God made me feel like I was thirteen years old when we were at Disney watching the Osbourne lights. That's what really triggered me to want to do lights. Because it made me feel a certain kind of way.

And I'm telling you, I said no. And it was a stern no for twenty-five years. I wasn't doing it. And then we saw those lights and when I left there, everything changed. And I've been hooked ever since.

My background is in nutrition and exercise and it has given me a different mindset to be able to push beyond the boundaries that most people can.

Let's talk about The Great Christmas Lights Fight. How was that process and how did you get involved?

Audra: Well, let's be honest and say that they were after us for a couple of years to do the show, but it wasn't something that we ever thought we were going to do. We also didn't also feel like we had enough to be on the show because we watched the show and we could see what others had.

A couple of years went by, and we felt like our show was where it needed to be.  You have to do a couple of interviews where they want to know about your show.

Rodney: You have to send in videos of your lights – some of the setup, some of pushing the lights, the different aspects of building a light show. It's not as easy as everybody thinks. And if you could do a behind the scenes, it would take hours to help you understand what really goes into it. You've got to understand your show, your dynamics and what it truly takes to build it.

Audra: It's not like when you go and see other people's Christmas lights where they just flip a switch and their lights come on and the blowups come up. Because of the fact that we have the synchronization, we have to have the wiring perfectly. We have to have all the wires connected to the controllers correctly because the way that you tell the lights to turn on is through each of the sequences. The programming tells it what color to turn on, what type of motion the light is going to do throughout the whole show. So, it's, it's a little bit different than like the average Christmas lights that you see out there.

TBPM: How far in advance did you have to set up before you were filmed?

Audra: They actually film you the year before, so we basically had to hold a secret in for a whole year. We actually filmed it Thanksgiving week and then we aired the next year.

Rodney: You basically give them like a timeline of when you think that you can be ready. And for us, we had never been ready that early. We added more, pushed all of the lights, built all the frames and set it up in a timeframe that we've never done. And we still pulled it off!

Why do you collect pet supply donations during your light show?

Audra: We actually have two rescues. We have A Kitten Place and then we also have the other one called Raining Cats and Dogs Shelter.

Basically, the way that it all kind of got started is that every year we host Christmas parties at our home for our friends. And people want to bring you gifts and we don't really need gifts. So, one year I just decided, you know what, let's raise for a cause.

So for our Christmas parties, we were asking people to bring pet food donations. And it was like this competition of who was going to bring the biggest bag of dog food, because then we have to haul that to the rescues. During COVID, we couldn't have a party and we were bummed out and we wanted to figure out a way that we could still kind of give back. So we decided that we were going to move our donations for the pets with our light show, because people were always like wanting to give us money for our electric bill or something. And, believe it or not, it doesn't raise your bill that much, the is LED lights. But if you want to make a donation, we're taking donations for pets.

We did some research and I really wanted to give back to smaller rescues because a lot of the bigger rescues get the corporate donations. The way that we ended up going with these two rescues is because it's exactly where we got our two kittens from. One came from Raining Cats and Dogs and the other came from A Kitten Place. That (A Kitten Place) was the first one that we selected and one of the co-owners actually works for the same company that I do. I had no idea! It was God's way of making me know that I picked the right rescue overall.

Do you have a favorite element of your light show?

Audra: We have these big trees that really do a lot of great effects. I think that's my favorite prop overall. We even added angel wings to the trees so they look really cool.

Rodney: They do so much and that's one thing that we had never replaced. I replaced them this year and they went from 3,200 lights to 6,400 lights so what that does is makes the images that are put on there even clearer. And we've got two of those. Then I've had another tree that had 2,400 on it and now it's got 4,800. Everything has been enhanced, upgraded, and replaced to make it look better.

For me, it's our crosses. We've got a big 92 by 92 screen that had two sheets cut and designed with a red, white, and blue cross on it. And it's humongous. And I want everybody to know when they drive by during the day, why we do this, what is the real reason behind it. And that's our Lord and Savior. And that's why I wear my cross every single day. My connection with Him is giving me this vision. And I can't explain it.

Audra: We really just believe, our faith is what keeps us going. And for the people that we get to meet out in the community, we had no idea how Christmas lights can help people that are in hard times.

They come and they tell us their stories, and sometimes it's just so gut-wrenching. But it's just wonderful that they feel comfortable to share what has happened to them, because they're just looking for an outlet. And that's what Christmas lights have done for them.

2025 Details:

Dates: December 7-January 17, 2026
Time: Nightly, beginning at 7 pm
Location: 2014 Sydney Rd, Valrico, FL 33594

On Sundays from 6 pm-7 pm, they will turn their lights on for a worship hour where the lights will be synchronized to the sounds of Christian music.

Be sure to pay them a visit and don't forget your pet supplies! You can also provide monetary donations to both rescues through the QR code located on the signs on the property.

Follow the Burton Family on Facebook for updates and info.

Looking for even more family fun this holiday season? Check out our list of the Best Holiday Events in Tampa Bay for Families!