Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree · Tesla Light Show
by Brenda Lee
Brenda Lee was thirteen years old when she cut this in 1958, and the show keeps the grin: the verses skip lightly across the signals and fogs, and every return of the chorus brings the front of the car up bright. It runs at a brisk clip, led by the front turn signals with the tail lights answering behind. The middle third is the biggest stretch, then it eases off into the finish. At 2:07 it is a short run, which makes it the one to open a set with rather than close it.
How this one is choreographed
This is one of the fastest shows in the library: the lights re-fire about 1.1 times a second and rarely sit still. The peak is in the middle third, where roughly 34% of the car is lit against 24% at the top, then it eases back for the finish. If you are filming, the fullest ten seconds start at 1:09, when about 40% of the car is lit at once. Most of the work falls on the front turn signals, re-firing about 1.4 times a second, with the tail lights answering back at 1.3. The work is split close to evenly between the two ends, 49% front to 51% rear, so it plays from either end, or side-on from the curb. The quietest part of the car is the side markers, at about 0.8 re-fires a second. It runs 2:07 and averages 63 of 255 across the light channels, a darker show that spends most of its time well below full, so the hits carry further. About 18% of the light values sit at a partial level, so hits are punctuated by fades rather than being pure on and off. It never goes completely dark for long: the longest gap is 0.9 of a second, at 2:03.
Measured from the exported light sequence for this show, not estimated from the song.
Get it for your Tesla
This show downloads for every Tesla: Model 3, Model Y, Model S, Model X, and Cybertruck. Preview it on your model with the View-on picker above, add it to your library, and it re-tailors to your car's lights automatically.
How to play it on your car
- Open the show above and add it to your library (remix it in the builder first if you want).
- Add your own copy of the song: an MP3/WAV you own. We distribute only the light pattern, never audio.
- Export the
.fseqbuilt for your model, then place your song next to it (or let the one-click USB writer do both). - Put both files in a
LightShowfolder on a USB drive. Or skip the manual steps: in Chrome/Edge, click 🔌 Write it to my USB drive for me right after exporting and we do it all, verified byte-for-byte. Then plug in and start it from Toybox → Light Show. Full walkthrough in the setup guide.
Car says Light Show instead of Custom Light Show, or the drive is not detected at all? That is the USB format, the folder name, or filenames that do not match. If it plays but drifts out of time, that is the audio sample rate. Fix both here.
Setting up for Christmas? The Christmas guide walks through the whole evening, from picking the show to parking the car so the neighbours can actually see it. Read the Christmas guide.
