It’s up, it’s shining brightly and donations are coming in to the Tomorrow Fund.

As he has done for years now – making the show more intricate each year – Mayor Frank Picozzi’s digital family Christmas light show went live last weekend. Usually Picozzi stages out a preview on Thanksgiving night for neighbors and friends, but that was canceled because of rain.

With the display set to music, Picozzi transforms his house and property at 75 Gristmill Road in the Hoxsie section of the city into a stage for dancing lights. He starts work on the display in the summer and fall, which was difficult this year as in addition to his job as mayor he was running for reelection. He found time on days off and the weekends to fit it all in.  He estimated this year’s show runs an hour and 10 minutes.

So far attendance has been a slow, which doesn’t surprise Picozzi.  It picks up closer to Christmas. The show runs Sunday through Thursday from 5:30 to 9 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday from 5:30 to 10 p.m. It closes on New Year’s Eve.  It’s free.

 The display can be viewed from limited parking in front of the Picozzi house and by “listening to the lights” on 97.1 FM. Many families gather outside to watch as well as to drop off letters to Santa – there’s a box out front – as well as to make donations to the Tomorrow Fund.

Last year, Picozzi estimates the display plus the “yuling” run by his wife, Kim, raised $30,000 for the Tomorrow Fund. The fund provides daily financial and emotional support to children with cancer and their families, from the time of diagnosis throughout the entire course of treatment and beyond.

Yuling?

“He started it all. It was his bright idea,” Kim says of her husband.

What prompted the fundraising program was the “flocking” that was done locally by a Girl Scout troop about eight years ago. The troop had a flock of pink flamingo cutouts that would be set up on the lawn of some unsuspecting resident. For a fee, the flamingos would be moved to another residence.

In place of flamingos, Picozzi came up with Christmas tree and ornament cutouts. He made 12 sets and recruited captains to head up each team of three to four volunteers. It’s now all in Kim’s hands.  She meets with team captains and coordinates the program that starts on Black Friday and goes until Dec. 23.

“Some even dress as elves,” she said of the volunteers. Names and addresses for those to be “yuled” are solicited on the Positive Warwick Facebook page. The trees and ornaments are erected outside a home with the information that the $10 fee to have them removed will go to the Tomorrow Fund.

“But some people give a lot more than that,” said Kim. She said each team brings in more than $1,000 by the end of the “yuling” season, all for the Tomorrow Fund.