By Casey Liss
Tacky Lights Navigator

Here in Richmond, Virginia, we take our Christmas lights seriously. Really seriously. It is a local tradition to go out with a group of friends or family, and look at all the ridiculous Christmas lights that local homeowners put up. We call this a “Tacky Lights Tour”.

Professional tour-goers, like your humble author, will often get together a bunch of friends so that it’s affordable to hire a limousine. Doing so allows everyone to safely enjoy their lights with their holiday beverage of choice. Though to be honest, I’m even more excited to do a family trip with Erin and Declan this year.

Does this seem a bit silly? Maybe. Before you judge, check out this awesome example from last year:

A photo posted by Casey Liss (@caseyliss) on

Not enough? You can try this. Or this. Or this.

You get the idea.

Last year, rather than taking a limo, we rented a minivan. I was the designated navigator. I wanted an easy way to navigate between houses that I can use on my iPhone. I ended up writing a single-serving page that simply has a list of all the addresses you want to visit. If you tap on any address on your iPhone, it will open Apple Maps and route from your current location to that address.

In preparation for this year’s tour, I just updated my local copy. In doing so, I thought the page may be of use to others. I originally posted about it on Tumblr last year, but I thought I’d mention it again here.

You can see the source for my Tacky Lights Navigator here. Edit it for the houses you select from the official list, post it somewhere you can get to from your iPhone (such as Dropbox), and go (safely) enjoy those tacky lights!