Colgate University’s Ho Tung Visualization Lab is hosting their annual “Let it Snow” show throughout the month of December. The show is currently being held every Tuesday and Friday in the Visualization Lab until Dec. 20 and runs for a quick 32 minutes. On Dec. 6, the show was introduced by first-year Griffin Mozinski, a Vis Lab technician, and projected onto the ceiling of the spherical dome theater in the Ho Science Center.
“This is a show we put on every year,” Mozinski said.
The show features holiday-themed computer animations, highlighting several traditional Christmas stories such as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman. The show also includes laser and kaleidoscope visuals. In addition, the animations were each paired with classic holiday background music, including classics like Frank Sinatra’s “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!,” Brenda Lee’s “Frosty the Snowman,” Burl Ives’ “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and Chuck Berry’s “Run Rudolph Run.”
The animations mainly depicted the stories related to the songs that were playing, such as Santa and his elves making toys during “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” There were also several kaleidoscope visuals throughout the showing using festive items such as mistletoe and reindeer as the patterns. This was a particularly stunning visual due to the dome format of the theater.
“I really enjoyed the parts where the kaleidoscopes were shown throughout the different parts of each song,” sophomore and attendee Carmen Albrecht said.
The show began with “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!,” accompanied with an animation of the inside of a snow globe with a Santa as the lead singer and three festive women singing the backup vocals, with snow falling in the background of course.
This scene was followed by a transition segment, which was repeated during each transition from one song to the next, where the dome screen zoomed out from the inside of an ornament and then panned along a Christmas tree onto another ornament. The following scene depicted Frosty the Snowman outside of a snowing winter cabin in the mountains.
One memorable scene was the “Run Rudolph Run” song and animations, where hundreds of red reindeer gathered on the screen and traveled in a pack through a winter forest.
“My favorite part was the part with all the little reindeer storming the screen,” first-year and attendee Ella Kahn said.
The show concluded in a laser animation finale with holiday music by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The theatrical music provided the show with a perfectly captivating ending.
The show is held in room 401 at the Ho Science Center at 6:30 on Tuesdays and Fridays in the month of December, with the last show on Friday, Dec. 20. With plenty of drinks and sweet treats being served at the entrance, the “Let it Snow” show is the perfect festive event for kids and families, as well as anyone in the Colgate community looking for a fun escape from the stress of finals season.
