Website allows Internet users to control Ohio man's Christmas lights

DOYLESTOWN, Ohio, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- An Ohio man is seeking international help with spreading the Christmas spirit by allowing people on the Internet to control his holiday light show.

Tom Hammond of Doylestown said a friend in Australia helped him come up with the idea about four years ago and he has since been working on the programming and hardware for his international Christmas experiment.

Hammond said anyone anywhere in the world with an Internet connection can go on his website, iTwinkle.org, and program the colors and effects of the Christmas lights at his home.

He said he is allowing the lights to be controlled by website users from 5 p.m. until midnight through Jan. 7.

"The website actually shows where everybody is coming from and I have had people from France and Denver, Colorado, and China and Russia, the Netherlands," Hammond told WJW-TV. "The first day I tried this I put one little message on Facebook and I had 800 people changing the lights in one evening which is a little bit crazy but a lot of fun."