Hot Chocolate — xLights Sequence

Watch the full-length preview on YouTube — the whole song, the whole house, start to finish. Nothing cut.

A big-band swing number where the whole house works as a train and a diner at once: the columns stand up as boxcars, every round prop turns like a drive wheel on “we got it,” the mini trees sing as marshmallows and the mega tree pours the cocoa. Ends on a dead stop and a slam.

What happens in this one

It’s the waiters’ number from The Polar Express, so the whole house works as a train and a diner at the same time.

• 0:00 — The eight columns stand up as boxcars and steam climbs them out of the intro.
• Chorus — The columns stamp every “hot, hot”; every round prop in the yard (wreath, snowflakes, grandes) turns like a drive wheel answering “we got it.”
• Verse — The four 400-pixel mini trees become singing marshmallows, lip-syncing the waiters off your own lyric track.
• Bridge — The mega tree pours cocoa into a cup: a real fill, top to bottom, not a colour wash.
• 2:22 — The band stops dead for three quarters of a second and the entire house goes with it, then slams back. It is the best three quarters of a second in the catalog.

What you get

• One packaged xLights sequence (.xsqz) — effects, timing tracks, lyric track, and every picture and GIF it references.
• Every prop on the display sequenced. No dark props, no “mega tree only.”
• Our model list, so you know exactly what to point each of your props at.
• Setup help by email if the import doesn’t go the way you expected.

The details

• Runtime — 2:31
• Tempo — 125 BPM
• Feel — Swing
• Format — packaged .xsqz, built in xLights 2026.16

You’ll need the song

The recording is not included with the sequence, and legally it can’t be. Buy the track below (it’s about a dollar), point xLights at your copy the first time you open the sequence, and that’s the last you’ll think about it.

Cut to: “Hot Chocolate” — Tom Hanks — The Polar Express (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Buy on Amazon Music  ·  Buy on iTunes

Questions people actually ask

Will it work with my controller?
Yes. A sequence is layout data, not controller data — xLights renders it to an FSEQ that your controller plays. Falcon, Kulp, FPP, xSchedule, a Pi in a weatherproof box: none of it is baked into the file.

I don’t have half these props.
Then map the ones you have and leave the rest unmapped. The song was designed so no single prop carries the beat — drop the wreath and the snowflakes and the canes and the mini trees are still keeping time. If you want a straight answer for your specific layout, email us a screenshot first.

Can I change it?
Change anything you like. It’s your display. Recolour it, cut the bridge, swap our pictures for yours — it’s a normal xLights sequence once it’s open.

What if something’s broken?
Email help@sequenceforge.shop and tell us what you saw. We’ll fix the file and send it back. Because the download opens the moment you pay we can’t take a sequence back, so we’d rather spend the time making yours work than argue about a refund.