Hi. I'm Jeff and a Christmas Light enthusiast!!!

[Jeff_Womack]

Ok, here the rules.

1. Start your post off with the subject line (replacing my name with yours).
2. Tell us as much as you are comfortable saying.
3. Don't respond to other's posts here. If someone says they are from a town close to you, Private Message them! Let's get this thread going! I would love to see a couple hundred responses within the week!

Here goes:

Hello, my name is Jeff, and I am a Christmas Light enthusiast!!! I live in Schertz Texas which is just outside San Antonio. I have been around PC for about 7 years. The first thing you have to know about me is I love Christmas Lights, as a matter of fact our website is WeLoveChristmasLights.com! To be more specific I love mini lights, wireframes, LOR, lots of color in a display and my close circle of very dear friends on PC. I am a Scorpio and even though I don't really believe in all that stuff Scorpio's supposedly tend to be very passionate people. Anyone who knows me knows I am passionate! Sometimes to a fault! :} Anyway, I helped organize the first PLUS and ran the vendor room for Chuck. For the second PLUS, I initially signed back on to help with vendors but due to work (US Air Force) I had to back out. At PLUS 2005, I thought a class about lighting up wireframes with Bill Hoffman. I have helped organize the Texas Mini PLUS's and am currenly projected to be the host of the September 2006 Texas Mini in San Antonio. My wife provides a lot of the inspiration for our display. Although I do the physical labor she tends to come up with some of the best ideas. Our display is based on a three year rotating theme. The first year (2004) was Candyland. 2005 was Winter Wonderland and 2006 will be Santa's Workshop. Candyland will be back for 2007. Through this rotating theme, we actually only use about 10% of the display from one year to the next, the rest is packed away waiting for it's turn in the rotation. As I said before I love my LOR. I use LOR different than most here. I do not sync to music nor will I and I use my boxes (over 100 channels in 2005) in stand-alone mode! Our display is designed not to showcase what you could do with LOR or other gadgets but to delight the kid in us all with the simple pleasures of Christmas. Thank you, my name is Jeff, and I am a Christmas Light enthusiast!!!

[Jeff_Womack]

Just reply to mine folks. Let's a long string of replies going. Who wants to admit their problem next?

[Daniel]

Hello, my name is Daniel I am 16, and I am a Christmas Light enthusiast x100 !!!


I live in Williamsburg, VA and have been a member to the ChatRoom for about 1 1/4 year(s). I started using Light-O-Rama last year with a Ctb-08 and hope to get more channels for this year. I am instrted in computers, I have 2. Both are used for the light show at christmas. I have not been to PLUS yet, I hope to get to go to the 2007 edition. Bill Hoffman was the one who helped me get started computerzing christmas lights and if he is at PLUS 2007 I want to meet him FIRST! I also have a website for my lights (needs updating) http://williamsburgchristmas.jritze.com . Next year or possibly this year I hope to add some mini trees, a yard grid and a few smaller mega trees to my light show. To say the truth Carson's show has not wowed me like most people, yes, it is a very good show but I have seen better in my opinion (check for videos in the show-n-tell area). Also I am willing to help people in websites, LOR and this ChatRoom. The best part about me is that I am a Christian and I celebrate the TRUE meaning of Christmas!



--Daniel L

[Ken Gelinas]

Hello, My name is Ken, I'm 53 years of age and I live in LaSalle, Ontario, Canada. ( We're located just across the river from Detroit).I'm one of these Newbies who was struck on the headby the "Carson Video" last November. The good part is, that the wound has healed as I now have, all wired and ready to go, the LOR 1602W Showtime Controller, in my garage and all prepared and ready to hook up the lights. I guess the great part about getting into it now, is that you have all summer to prepare. I have already popped a hole in my garage wall and I put in a 3 1/2" round plastic drain cap in the hole and cemented in very nicely so it dosent look like it was just thrown in. I'll use this to feed my extension cords out, through the wall and to the displays on the yard and on the house. When the hole is not in use, I simply screw the cap back on and it's flush with the wall and fully sealed.

My other project I have that is near and dear to me, is that I am the founder of our local KID'S I.D. Program. It has been very well received locally and my hopes are that it will continue on and get even bigger.I have a website that I wrote and I'm looking for a little bit of help( website designer)to "IMPROVE" on it, a bit, but, that will take time.

Imagine ,creating something for the benifit of a child and HOPE that itNEVER has to be used. Quite a concept...eh!

Ken Gelinas

KLG 28

http://www.kidsid-eh.com

[logan_moore]

Hello my name is Logan Moore. I am from Glencoe, Alabama. I have been a member of Planet Christmas for about 7 years. I was 13 when I joined and now at the age of 20 have a display that has grown into one of the biggest displays in my area. For 2005 I had 25,000 lights controlled by 16 LOR Channels and a 15 amp digital timer for my static items. For 2006 I have already purchased an additional 25,000 lights during the after christmas sales, and hope to add 80 more LOR Channels. I am the owner of http://www.christmasdisplays.net I created this site the following christmas after I found Planet Christmas. It was originally www.christmasdisplays.cjb.net and was created in the year 2000. After two years at this address I decided to buff things up registered www.christmasdisplays.net. The site was originally a Display Lighting Directory, however over time it became harder to update and was eventually replaced by the great www.christmaslightfinder.com. The site has changed formats and now holds monthly giveaways, and provides useful information on how to build projects to improve your display. That is about all there is to know about me and my PC Past. Oh well I did write and perform the #1 hit The Planet Christmas Song about 2 years ago.

[jen grissett]

Hello....my name is Jen and I too have a problem....:laughing:

I live in Conway, SC...that's about 15-20 miles off of Myrtle Beach...But my hometown is Loudon county, TN...so you guessed it...I'm a Vol..:dude:


I have been decorating for as long as I can remember...I got more serious in 1996...that was the year I was blessed with a daughter...she also enjoys decorating...we love Christmas...but our favorite decorating holiday is Halloween..:shock:

My display consists of a mix of everything...blowmolds...inflatables...wireframes. ..lights...whatever I can find..:rudolph:


Blowmolds are my main item of choice...I collect them not only for their beauty...but the history as well...I have somewhere between 200-300 in my collection...and it is a year round hobby for me...I yard sale...flea market and of course EBAY..:snowman:

I will admit...I am drawn to inflatables as well...I love the bigger than life quality they add...I have a Good 75 or better of those and I also am a proud member ofairblown...collectors.club (http://www.airblownclub.com/) ...This was started by a couple of our PC members...Jason Jones and Joe Neve..:cool:

This year I will be adding computer control...I have chosen to use LOR...not only is it a quality product...but the customer service is amazing...I'm undecided if I will use music or not...it may be added for 2007..:tree:


I found PC about 4 yrs ago...I too lurked for a long time...but I think I have since come out of my shell...:shock:...These are good people on this board...They have helped me manage through the roughest times I have ever experienced...more than they will ever know...and I thank each and everyone of them for that..:ornament:

I would like to send out a warm welcome to all of our new members and our old lurkers...as well...I hope to see you post and enjoy this club as much as I do...:waycool:

[nanac1]

Hi, My name is Marilyn and I'm a Christmas Light enthusiast. After spending 13 years in Europe we returned to the US and bought our first and only home. Of course, the primary reason we chose this home was location, location, location. It is very visible from the highway (sits on a hill) and close to the front gate of Fort Hood. I have been decorating for 39 years (23 at this location). Last year we had 140,000 lights, 200 blow molds, 10 inflatables, 120 wireframes, plywood cutouts, mini trees, etc and that's only on the outside. I also do a massive indoor display consisiting of 8 large Christmas trees, 145 animated dolls, four nativities, almost 100 porcelain Christmas dolls, music boxes, stuffed animals, toys, garland and over 20,000 lights inside. Our home has become the main display in this area.We had 48 channels of LOR and D light last year and will increase that by 160 channels of LOR this year. We will also add 18 custom made wire frames from Lori's in 2006.

Due to our close proximity to Fort Hood we get visitors from all over the world. We always open our home to anyone who wants to go through it during the holidays. This Christmas Eve we had 4000 visitors outside and 1000 who went through the open house. We had people from 5 foreign countries, 11 states besides Texas and 25 cities in Texas sign our guest book inside. Our five grandchildren and two children are also Christmas Enthusiasts.

I have been a proud member of PlanetChristmas since late 1998. I was honored to serve on the PLUS Steering Committee in 2005 and will also serve in 2007. I have hosted two Texas mini's at my home since 2004. I don't need a countdown clock. I've been able to tell anyone how many days until Christmas at any given point in time for at least 40 of my 57 years. My darling hubbby, Dan (you've seen him on thePLUS2005 video's doing the hula)won Lori's seals at PLUS2005. This was only his second year of being involved in the display. Now he's hooked thanks to Dan Baldwin, Mark Obermiller, and the Monkhouses.

Marilyn

[VonnerNIX]

Hello, my name is Ryan. I don't think I am as hardcore as some of the rest of you, but I certainly do LOVE Christmas. Before we got married we both were excited about helping our parents decorate their houses, and now that we are married it is an awesome feeling to do our own house! Just seeing the neighborhood kids stop by and stare is an awesome feeling.
We don't have too much stuff as of yet, as we just moved out of our old house and into a much larger house. So this year is going to be a 'get by' year, from here on out it is going to get bigger and better.
We are big into lights, and a few wireframes/blowmolds. We will be adding animation to the house this year as well. I'm excited for the season.
See you all around!

[tkhowse]

Hello. I'm Timothy Howse (a high school Senior) from Livonia, Michigan (in the Detroit area) and my display is called CHRISTmas Land, dedicated to celebrating the true meaning of Christmas. I've been decorating since around 1998, when my passion for Chistmas lights started. I started actively participating in the PlanetChristmas Community in 2004, and have been active here ever since. I've found this place extremely useful...and also...A-D-D-I-C-T-I-N-G!

I'm a big-time Christmas lighting enthusiast and love to talk about Christmas year-round, even in the summertime. I am crazy enough to count down at this time of year.

[Tom K]

Hi, My name is Tom K and I am a CLF. I Live in Dayton (sugarcreek actually), Ohio.

I am 13 and I love Christmas lights. I have been decorating as long as I can remember. I have memories of going outside with my Dad, watching him put up lights. I found this site right before the switch from the old board. This may seem odd, but I found Carsons show after I got here. It took me awhile to figure out he was the guy in the local paper. This year I plan on using LOR to computerize my display and expanding to 20k lights.Some ofmy hobbies are DJing, wiring up my house:shock:,and playing around with computers (hardware + software). My parents think I am insane:], but help me with ideas for the display. (I think they are crazy about Christmas too, just wont reveal it.) Thank you to everyone here at this board, you have given me great ideas.

Tom

Wow, I just reread that. My writing teacher would kill me if she read that.:shock::]:shock::]

[csmith]

I'm Chuck Smith... old enough to occasionally receiveUSDs (unsolicited senior discounts) at restaurants. I'm still coming to grips with this...

I am a Christmas decorating enthusiast for two reasons.


As an engineer I love the challenge of putting up a display and making people say "how did he do that?"
I know I'm making lifelong memories by adding a little more magic tothe Christmas season

[TxLight]

Hello, I'm Don. I live in a northern suburb of Dallas, Texas.

For me, the desire to put up Christmas lights started when I was a young child. Each year we would go looking at lights, and we would always drive by "that house." The yard was filled with wooden cut outs, a sleigh, and music. Lights were all over the place! I still remember driving by one year only to learn that it was gone.

As I got older, we moved into a new house in the same town. Of course, I wanted to put lights on it. However, honestly, my dad wasn't to thrilled with the idea. (Probably because I was a hooligan growing up, but I digress.) Anyway, the most lights I ever got on the house was 125 C9, and some mini lights in a few bushes.

After that it was apartments for me until I met my wife back in 2001. That first Christmas together was spent, you guessed it, in an apartment. Late summer of 2002 we moved into our current house. Even as the house was being built, I was trying to figure out how I would put lights on it.

Each year the display grew larger ... and in 2005 it went computer controlled.

Most of my desires to go computer controlled got started from a part time job I held at an ice rink. There was (and still is at Christmas) a very large indoor tree with lights that were synchronized to music.

Here is a clip from 2005 (http://www.wonderlandchristmas.com/av/videos/galleriadallas.wmv). (Please note I added the background music you hear. I was unable to record the real music playing in the background.) In fact, my first year working there I got a chance to watch the gentlemen program the tree. At that point I knew it could be done, but it took quite a while before I found an affordable solution.

That solution was found in early December, 2004. (The 11th, if I recall correctly.) An article via the AP mentioned PlanetChristmas.com and Light-O-Rama. As soon as I saw the prices I was sold. I started planning for it that week. (It helped that I had the lights on the house at the time, giving me a chance to see things in my mind.)

Now that I have an idea how all of this works, I spend my time helping others figure out LOR. I started the LOR Wiki, which is a site for user contributed documentation for LOR. It allows others who have knowledge to share it, and those who want up to date information to get it.

Hi I am Robin Stublen. I like Christmas Lights a little bit. I live in Punta Gorda, FL where retirees come to die! I was born and raised in Weston, WV the home of the Weston State Hospital for the Insane (explains my light problem). My wife and I both graduated from West Virginia University. She has her masters plus 31 in speech pathology and I have my B.S. in business management. I was a personnel director/ supervisor before I moved to FL. I have lived in Punta Gorda for 20 years and have my state certification in lawn and ornamental pest control. I own Charlotte Pest Services, Inc. and we offer complete maintenance including turf mowing and shrub and tree care as well as minor landscape projects. We specialize in the higher end residential market as well as condo and office complexes. On August 13, 2004 we suffered a direct hit from Hurricane Charlie. this storm had winds of 145mph with gusts over 180 and was the strongest storm to hit the U.S. since Andrew hit Homestead, FL. Over 19 months later and buildings are still being torn down and people are still living in FEMA trailers. For the record, we knew Mike Brown from FEMA was an idiot before the rest of the nation.:] I must warn you all I am a conservative and I am talking Barry Goldwater/ Ronald Reagan type conservative. Not the type we have now. I belive in God, Famil, USA and my right to carry. :laughing: I have run for office in my county but Charlie really put the nix to that one. Also, have worked on the Bush brother's campaigns locally. I am a member of the Kiwanis and a few years ago was nominated and accepted into the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels. I have two children Kyle 18 who will be going to University of Florida and Emily who will be 14 in July. I will be 50 in May and refuse to join AARP! I think I joined PC in 2002 but since I am getting old I have a difficult time remembering things. My spell checker does not work on this thread for some reason and I refuse to proof read sorry:].

I have been decorating for the past 15 years. First decoration was a snowman. Last year we completely changed our display. In 2004 we had over 125 wooden cut outs that I had made and about 40,000 lights. In 2005 we had almost 100,000 lights 60 wireframes, 50 blowmolds and about 35 inflatables many items were controlled by 48 LOR channels and broadcast on FM radio. We collected over $1,300.00 for Kiwanis of which I am a member. For 2006 we will have close to 160,000 lights, over 100 wireframes (of which I have made 80% of all of them), 45-50 inflatables, 100 blowmolds and a total of 208 LOR channels. You can see some of the wireframes if you go to my website listed below and the wireframe thread here at PC.

Welcome all you newbies and thanks to all the old dogs that have helped me so much since I joined. Also, thank you Chuck. I have never met you nor have we spoken but I can tell you are in a class all your own. Thank you so very much for PC.

Robin

[lkcubsrule]

Hi, I'm Luke and i Live in Northwest Indiana. I started like 6 years ago when my family bought 4 strands of lights and i went to my most desired place, American Sale!!! (http://www.americansale.com) I then helped my neighbors put their icicles up for like 4 years. A few years ago as payment, they bought me some icicle lights! I was thrilled, and we still have them. Now that i have moved 1 1/2 years ago, my mom insists that we have icicles around the house. I want to do them with LOR. So, she gets the back of the house in static icicles, while i get our icicles on the front (along with the blue trees adn the red/green bushes that i'm doing this year) she gets her STATIC part from like 5-7, and then i get the SHOW w/ LOR:cryingdevil: from 7-10/10:30!:waycool::waycool:.

Luke K.

[ajbanz]

Hi!!!. My name is Aleesa (friends call me AJ) and I'm a CLF. I live in beautiful western Maryland with my husband and son. Older son is married and moved to PA. We live in the tiny part of Maryland. We can be PA, WV or VA within 10 minutes.

Our decorating started when we first got married. My mother in law gave us a few blowmolds which we put in front of our tiny apartment. From there it has grown. My husband and I make a great team. He does the physical part of the putting up the lights and I do the hard part. SHOPPING!!!!

Today our display takes over the yard of our home. Lights everywhere including blowmolds, inflatables and wireframes. Hubby loves the animated wireframes. I like the blowmolds. Each year we see who can outdo the other family members. His mother, us, and yes, we now have my mother on board. Athough, we don't let her on the roof, so we do the roof lighting for her.

We decorate for both Halloween and Christmas. Halloween is my favorite. Christmas is his. We both have jobs that do not allow alot of creativity, so holiday decorating is our creative outlet.

We also enjoy camping in our travel trailer and have several decorations we take along to the campgrounds. Last year we won second place for our Halloween display at the local campground.

I found planet christmas by accident last year and have been hooked ever since. I visit daily to see what's going on. However, I'm generally shy (until I get to know someone) so mainly I sit in the corner and just watch. Guess that makes me a lurker.

Thanks for this great website and for my new friends.

AJ

[LisaJ]

My name is Lisa J and I currently reside aboard a Naval Submarine Base in beautiful WA state. We will be here for 1 more yr, then my husband retires from the Navy and we will be headed to our dream state, Alaska. We've previously lived in IL, northern CA, southern CA,Groton CT and WA since 2001. I'm orginally from MA and but did spend my teen yrs growing up in Colorado Sprgs.

I've been decorating since we had our first child in 1994, but a few yrs later we discovered he was deaf. This is when our decorating really took off. We wanted him to really SEE Christmas, since he could not hear the sounds that come with the holiday season. I dont know how many lights we have, or how many blowmolds, etc etc. For us the numbers arent the important things.As long as we are bringing smiles to our 3 childrens faces, and the neighborhood, thats all the count we need to know.

I love blowmolds, and this yr when my husband gets back from deployment we hope to have time to get some wooden cutouts done for our yard. When we settle in Alaska we'd like to try our hands at LOR. I also wish I was as talented as Robin and could make really cool wireframes!

I have Christmas stuff in my home all year, and I collect Christmas movies as well as Christmas books. I love Christmas, and freely admit it:)

[Brad Caudill]

Hello, my name is Brad, and I am a blowmoldaholic. I love them and try to get one of each out there that was made. I live in Irmo,SC right outside of Columbia. I just recently moved out of the parents house and got my own house so last year was the first Christmas at my new house and overall the new neighbors loved it. I have over 600 blowmolds for all holidays, around 20 or so wireframes, and around 50 inflatables. I don't keep up with a light count. I also work a haunted trail called Blood Moon on the River at Halloween and work year round on Holiday Lights on the River at Saluda Shoals Park in Columbia. (http://ssplights.tripod.com). You can see past displays of mine at http://bradschristmasworld.tripod.com . I will get around to posting new pictures one day. I have been around PC since Dec. 2001.

[Carrie Sansing]

Hello, my name is Carrie Sansing, and I'm a Christmas light enthusiast. I live in Glenview, a northern suburb of Chicago, and I'll be 51 in September. Ihave not yet joined AARP (denial-denial!) Istarted decorating at 12, so this year will be my 39th Christmas light display. I still have sooo much to learn.

MyMom got me started decorating andI learned at her knee. In my late teens, early twenties, we won our town's decorating contest 3 years running. We then voluntarily quitentering in order to give others a chance.We were always inspired by the displays in Lincolnwood, IL, where almost every home had thousands and thousands of lights, mechanical animations, etc. This was back in the days when there was no such thing as a home computer.

I started lurking on PlanetChristmas in 1999 and learned an enormous amount even though I had many years of experience behind me. I finally broke my lurker statis a few years ago when I was faced with some electrical questions--a 150 amp old fashioned fuse box, no circuit breakers here, not even today, we still screw in the old Busse's. Mel Fischer, who later became one of my best friends here, a mentor if you will, helped me with those questions and that was when I fully realized the greatness of this community and I slowly started to make smallcontributions.

I served on the PLUS2005 Steering Committee and will continue to servethat committee for PLUS2007. Working with the other committee members was/is an honor I don't take lightly. An absolutely incredible group of people who I consider friends, not just acquaintances. This September, I will host the first Windy City Mini, and anyone and everyone is welcome to attend. I'll strive to make your attendance here worth while.

My display is small compared to many others here in terms of the number of lights I use. Last year's displaywasapprox. 20,000 lights, 175 blow molds, wireframes, 24 channels of LOR, little Tykes houses, motorized elves, and various other designelements. Because I have not been able to upgrade my electrical service, I strive to achieve a well balanced and pleasing display,focusing on quality and richnessof design rather than quantity of lights used.I take a small meaure of pride in the fact that even though the display is smaller by PC standards, its well known in this area. I delight in sharing the spirit of Christmas and I consider my workto be mygift to my community. If I can build memories for people, as Lincolnwood did for me--I'll be content.

We doget non-stop traffic, bus tours, and people from far away places. I'm 15 minutes from one of the busiest airports in the world,O'Hare, so we've had visitors from Japan, Poland, Korea, Germany, Italy, England, China, etc. stopping by for photos. The babble of foreign languages in the front yard is like music to our ears each year. I don't use strobes in my display--flash cameras seem to be pretty much non-stop, making strobes, at least so far,unnecessary!

I am a die hard, drop dead, blow mold fanatic and enjoy the luxury of being able to pick and choose different oneseach year from my collection of over 400+, which I started in my twenties. There are others here who have many more than I, which comforts me when I question my sanity.I also design and create wooden cut outs and am currently working on an aminated coro display for this year. I'm a pack rat, so I have tons of things in storage that I can use when I want to--or not (inflatables, mini trees, etc.), depending on that year's theme.

My display is changed every year in order to keep itfresh and being blow mold centric, it is primarily static. LOR was used in order to change colors more than anything else (it also helped keep my costs in line). Like Jeff Womack, I do not sync to music, but shall be incorporating music this year.

I also do a largeHalloween display--itsmy second love. I will be using LOR, synced to music for Halloween this year. At least that is the plan.

For the record, I'm a liberal Democrat in the true sense of the wordliberal (open minded)and I'm proud of it. I am a college graduate (law major), was a paralegal for 22 years, and am now the general manager of an apartment complex and shopping mall as well as managing databases two days a week. I work hard, but play hard too. I'm a Greek Orthodox christian. I'm married and have a teenage (15) son. My hobbies, outside of Christmas, include woodcarving, drawing, painting, reading, music, cooking, and baking.

[JR V]

Hi, my name is JR, I live in Kennewick, WA and I am a Christmas Light Enthusiast.

I love lights. We never had much money when I grew up so we never got to decorate our home that much. We would paint the windows but that was about it. After I got married we spent our first Christmas together in an apartment. So for the first time I decorated, I had one string of icycle lights hanging on our balcony. The next 3 Christmas's we spent in our trailor. When we left there we had a total of about 1000-1500 lights. We then adventured to be self-employed and moved. The first year in our current home we didn't anything for Christmas. Money was extrememly tight with the new home and I had no time to decorate. The next year thou (3) years ago I pulled out those lights from before and got some more plus I added a Noma DLS controller. I THEN GOT HOOKED. In 04' I added 2 more DLS controllers and few thousand lights, but wasnt too pleased with how you had to get theDLS's sinqued to each other, so I did a web search to see if I there was something else out there. Well my search brought me too Tim F. website which led me too PC. In 05' I became a member to PC and increased my light count to 11k. Then after the sales increased it again. But why do I do this. Because when I was young there use to be some great displays around town most of them promoting Christ. Now there are only a couple of big displays and none of them promote the true meaning of Christmas. My website is Lights4Christ.com and there is a reason for that. I will do whatever it takes to let people know the true meaning.

[Sneaky Pete]

Hi there, I'm Pete from Traverse City Michigan which is in Northern Lower Michigan. I'm 30 years old and have been decorating in moderation for years. This year I decided to finally dedicate myself and put up a real crowd pleaser. Just got my very first LOR's several days ago (48 channels) and can't wait to put em to work on what I'm hoping will be about 18,000 lights this year.

I'm strickly a "light guy". Not to saythat blowmolds and inflatables aren't way cool, I just like to keep it simple with C-9's and lots of mini's.

Everybody I know thinks that I belong in a looney bin, including my wife, so it's nice to be able to have a place to talk about Christmas stuff without getting weird looks from people. I'm sure everybody can probably relate to that. Anyway, thanks to everyone for the great idea's and keep em coming. I couldn't do it without ya.

[Michael B]

Hello, my name is Michael, and I am a Christmas Light enthusiast!!! I am 44 years old and I have three kids. I have always loved Christmas. My mom got me hooked. She always made sure the inside of the house was decorated. We had a small house, but the living room was always full of presents. You had to be careful how you walked! You might trip on a present. When my wife and I first moved into a house about 19 years ago, I started decorating. My wife isn't in to decorating, but likes the finished product. We slowly started adding lights. The problem was I had a vertical lot and hardly any room to put up a large display.

About three and a half years ago we moved into our current house. It is on a acre and is a horizontal lot. Plenty of room to put a large display. My main problem is I am a teacher and my wife home schools two of our children. The third has learning disabilities so we opted for a private school. We don't have a lot of extra money to spend on Christmas lights. So, even though it hurts, I will not purchase LOR this year. I am going to work on making my display bigger and better.

Last year, I had about 10,000 lights which was the largest so far. This year I got some fantastic sales on lights. I have been going to yard sales. I buy extension cords and lights. I am up to over 25,000 lights. I rarely pay full price for lights. I like bargains. I have three deer and 4 lighted wire frame Christmas trees.

I became a member of PC a few months ago. I read almost everyday. I have learned so much from many of you. Thank you for sharing. I think about my display everyday. My friends and family think I am crazy to want to talk about Christmas lights so much. I look at it this way: I am doing something I love, it is a blast, it helps to make Christmas memories for my kids and all the kids that see my display.

My mom, Pearl is now 79 and in a nursing home, she has Alzheimer's. She doesn't recall my name anymore. Last Christmas season, she was in the hospital. I was driving her home. We were holding hands and singing Christmas songs together. I was crying, laughing, singing, driving, and loving my mom. This year I will dedicate my display to my mom. If she is still around I will drive her to my lights and we will sing Christmas songs. I love Christmas and the memories it creates for us and others.

Thank you and go hug your mom if you can.

Michael B

[Bob Van Streader]

Hello everyone...my name is Bob and I am 78 years old. I live in a small town in the lower section of western New York State. I live in a mobie home on 6 acres of which about 4 acres is wooded land.

I don't have a problem but everyone else does that doesn't belong to this website .

Since I am 78 years old that means I was born in 1928. I was born before inflatables, wire frames, blow molds, icycle lights, mini lights and even before tree garland.

Since I have to do all of my decorating by myself my display consists of about 12,000 lights along with about 20 wire frames, 30 blowmolds, 25 home made projects and numerous hand made signs. I have another 20, 000 lights that I haven't used yet. I am not computerized as of yet but I am getting close to it. I hope to acheive this by next year.

Officially I am retired from my job of setting type (38 years) but I still work 32 hours a week now in another field.

I really enjoy this thread so please continue adding to it.

Bob >^..^<

[bekacaudill]

Hey yall, my name is Beka, and I am a Christmas Light enthusiast! 2005 was my first year to realy decorate outdoors, as it was our first married year in a house!. I'm hoping to eventally expand to having a radio and some LOR involved in my display, though I doubt I'll sync to music. In my other life, I am owned by 2 basenji mixes, and promot spay and neutering and animal rescue. I think I am going to dedicate a portion of my display this year to my dogs. Can't wait to get started!!!!!

[crazy4holidays]

Hi my Real name is Thomas Nick and i am A Christmas?Halloween Light Enthusiast. I live in the small town of Conyngham PA. I am 15 years old and have2 younger brothers and 1 younger sister. I have a dog that like to bark at my inflatables and chase my molds. My decoration of choice is Blowmolds, inflatables and mini lights. I am still a Newbie when it comes to PC but i think i am getting the hang of it and will try my best to make the Conyngham Valley Shine this season. I joined PD on December 9th 2005 . I am going into my 4th season of lights. I added alot of lights for 2006 so it will be very bright. My latest project was/is my New website, with i have be working on since March 9!

Crazy4holidays Website (http://geocities.com/crazy4holidays/)

[Mark Sloat]

Hello my name is Mark Sloat and I too like so many here am a Lighting Enthusiast/Christmas prop maker. I am from Lombard, Illinois and today is my Birthday. But with all the best wishes on my birthday I only long for one thing. That one day Christmas will be here. With it will come the task of putting up the lights, the controllers, and setting up the timers. Again I will be in my glory. For then, and only then, can I look out my window and not see all the lights, but all the smiling faces it brings. But today I am truly happy. For today I got to change the light bulb from the lamp of my garage. Oh, Joy! Now I am truly ready for Christmas. Somebody pinch me.

[John Lomnicki SR]

Hi, my name is John Lomnicki, Sr. andone ofmy pastimes and hobbiesisseasonal outdoor lighting. I currently live in Roseville, MN, but havealso livedaround Pittsburgh, PA, Philadelphia, PA, Atlanta, GA and Tampa, FL. My wife, Pat, tolerates the hobby quite well. I have three grown children and 3 grandchildren with one more on the way.

Ihave avery friendly lighting competition with my son who also lives in the Twin Cities. So far he has bested me almost every season. Last year I finally got the upper hand for Halloween.

I will have a lot of power this year- 400 dedicated AMPS and another200available if needed. I will be placing the feeder circuits underground in the next couple of weeks. I also have over 1000K of lights available this year. This will make quite an interesting palette.

I enjoy PPF's (#) (Pink Plastic Flamingos) and torturing others with the pink bird. MyPPF flock currently numbers over 1000, but I have never displayed more than572 at one time.

This, hopefully, will be the year that I computerize with LOR-FM. It will really add something to the presentation. I have always had the computer ability, but not the power or the time to implement.

I intend to have a seasonalpresence every month this year and my neighbors can't wait to seewhat I will come up with next.

Ihave worked in sales and marketingin the medical device industry. I have a degree in pharmacy and I currently manage a pharmacy at Wal-Mart.

I enjoy PC and getting on the board. This is a class community of people with a sense of humor about themselves and life. It is quite an enjoyable experience. I was able to meet a lot of folks at the get-together (PLUS 2005) in TN. It was a blast. I hope that I will be able to attend the mini-PLUS in Chicago.

[Roadrat]

*Clears throat, seaches crowd*

Hello, I am Dave, aka, Roadrat, and I am a Christmas light enthusiast and have been for years. At least as long as I can remember, I helped Dad put up the two strings of C9's on the eve. It was sort of a ritual. Before Christmas, we drove around and looked at the bigger displays of the time. Somday, I dreamed. That was the 60's.

It stopped in my teen years because vandals would unscrew the lights and break them on the porch. That was the '70's.

I started again in 1983 in my first house with the same two strings of C9's, given to my by my father. My wife bought me a 5x20 string of 6v. bulbs for the bush. It grew to include 6 windows by 1987. It could all be put up on Thanksgiving day while smoking the turkey and listening to 'Alice's Restaurant". I sold that house and moved to a more upscale neighborhood.

In 1989, I made my first cutouts, a tree and two stars.

By 1991, it could no longer be put up on Thaksgiving Day. I had to start the Sunday before and finish on Thanksgiving. I made my first train.

By1992, the porch light outlet could no longer handle the load.

By 1993, it was up to 5K lights, the largest display in the neighborhood. I started the entire week before Thanksgiving.

By 1996, I did a major upgrade, made it to 10K lights and had two dedicated circuits. I built my first attractions that drew visitors outside the neighborhood, a plane with working lighted propeller, and an animated lighting controller that could sequence lights on a runway and have soldiers march. It alsocontrolled a sequenced Ferris Wheel. I made the local news that year. Traffic increased more. My neighbor suffers when his megatree is run down by a Camaro. He retires from lighting and gives me what's left of his tree.

The next few years saw only minor upgrades. The animated Ferris Wheel was replaced by a mechanical one. I made a mechanical crossing gate for the train. I had to replace two cars on the train. I added a third circuit to run 12,000 lights. I added some old pedal cars from the 60's to the display.I concentrated on ways to vandal proof the diaplay. Although I have caught and procecuted a few, others got away with some of my items and destroyed others.

By 2000, I'm ready to throw in the towel. Too much vandalism. I can't stay up all night anymore. My son pleads with me to keep going.

Forward to 2001-2004: I made a new controller that would sequence a traffic light at the intersection of the plane's runway and Main street. I'm still stuck at around 12, 000 lights. Nothing much new. Visitors have to ask what's new because there is so little change from prior years. The drive system on the mechanical Ferris Wheel is worn out and no longer turns. Somehow, I get on the local news again. I guess someone submitted the display and it was shown as a background to the weather forcast.

2005: I decide in September to try something different. I built a new arbor and fence. I expand the traffic light controller logic. I added some new roads and added little 8 inch blowmolds as passengers in my train. I re-arrange other items. It was a hit. My neighbors say it's the best I've done in years. Regular visitors say the same. I take it down happyand have it all put away by 6pm Jan. 1st.

Keep in mind, I never heard of Planet Christmas all this while. I'm in my own little Christmas world and there isn't anyone interested in this activity until next November. I know there are many better displays, one being that guy that has the FM transmitter down in Fenton and blinks his lights to music.

I mused for a while how this guy may have designed a controller that did this. I never saw this display. I could never find it. I only heard about it. I thought a few hours on this and decided it was beyond what I could design with simple hardware sequencers. It would take a microprocessor and some programming. I'm a hardware engineer, not a programmer that does assembley language on a processor. Idea leaves brain.

2006: I'm at a live chat room of artists and writers. One gal from Minnesota has heard of the Carson Williams display. She sends me the 4 meg file and I play it.

And play it. and play it.... OK, here is a working example of what I heard about in Fenton. I watch intently for clues. Nah, too advanced for me, but it would be nice to get some of those effects without the music. THIS, I could build.

For grins, I thought to see if commercial controllers for Chistmas lights existed. Much to my surprise, they did. I wondered what these companies did the REST of the year. In my searches, I also find this Planet Christmas message board. By the 7th of January, some of my packed display is out again. I'm now inspired to do another major upgrade. This may or may not include music, but WILL include new special effects and maybe top the 20K light mark. I can run five, maybe up to 7 circuits to my new relay box. I'm only limited to the 40' x 60' of front yard and a bit of side yard with two large trees.

Yes, the two original strings of C9's from my father still grace the eve of this house as the one before it and my childhood house in the 60's. This will never change.

That is my story.

[Mary Jayne]

Hello my name is Mary Jayne andI too am CLF. Some peopleknow me as Mary and most of my familycalls me Jayne and somefriends and family call meMary Jayne and Ifound on the web, that the two names are not used together much, so it is better to use them both, so I stand outsome...unless you havesomeone use the Spanish version (marijuana)...which gave me a lot of trouble in high school with the new nickname I was given.

I livein a suburb of Baltimore, MD...nicknamed Charm City...our one Mayorgave it the nickname the City that Reads and everyone turned that into the City that Bleeds. My neighborhood is one of the better ones in the city...ok we have heard a few gun shotsaround here but since I am of the age that remembers duck and cover...well that still comes in handy.

As to age...well let us just say that AARP is starting to stalk me. Empty nester...one baby malechick flew the nest about 4 years ago. Husband...we have30 year anniversary coming up in May (and they said it wouldn't last 6 months, we stayed together just to prove them wrong)...he isn't into the"decorating" but will help me with the electrical stuff.Put another outsideoutlet on the other side of the house for me this pastyear.

Ilurked here for a long time...don't even remember how long...then when they went to the new format...well I just got tired of not being able to see things...so I joined up.

I use to decorate really big inside, lost count of how many nutcrackers I have, and do some outside.These lastfew years Ihave done more outside.My one neighbor andIdid notice more neighbors getting involved this year with their houses decorated...5 in a row is a big deal on this street...and the neighbor across the street, who has been going on about needing sunglasses when he sits on the porch and looks over, has asked me if I have any extra lights this year, so I can come over and decorate his house.

I also noticed the guy around the corner...his house is built like ours...everytime we do something, he has to do the same thing. We put on porch, he put on a porch, added a parking pad, he added a parking pad. Ihang candy cane lights on my railing, he hangs candy cane lights on his railing, Iput out a sleigh with packages and lights..well you getthe idea. So this year I amplanning on makingmore of my own decorations...and see if he can copy that.

These past couple of years I have also gotten involved with an Internet group and we make Christmas Stockings and help get some stocking stuffers,to send over to the troops in Iraq. Have to make them early enough so that they can get sent towhoever is going to stuff them and then they send them out in a group...this year I think it was over 2000 sent by our little group. So far we have donetroops out of FT. Hood, TX:FT Campbell, KY (50 boxes this year went overto this group alone):NationalGuardUnit out of KS: National Guard Unitout of PA: and a small Mash Unit. For somein themilitary our stockings were the only thing they received...I am very proud to do my little part in making their Christmasa little brighter.

I havelearned a lot ofthings on here...and this group has givenme the ability to look at anythingand figure out a way to stick a light in/on/through it. This Easter I put mini lights in those little plastic eggs...they are stuck in a little wagon. I put holes in the bottom of the bigger eggs from the dollar store and have them stuck on my ground stakes from Halloween Lights. I also learned how to do Styrofoam cut outs when I worked at the florist....these are mounted on florist easels. So my Styro Bunny that I have had for years...well this year I put mini lights on the easel behind him and yes they light him up.So now I am thinking maybe gingerbread men for Christmas. Lit from behind or outlined or even put some through the Styrofoam...I will decide that when I cross that bridge.The only thing I don't care for is the easel showingin backbut that isn't a problem up close to the house or when next to bushes.

I alsoquilt, like to read, anddo painting, any kind, from fabric, todecorative, to paintingrooms...well ok ceilings not so much.

This is the only place I can say and have others understand,that I can sit and watch the lights on a ferris wheel (love to find a burnt out one)or at a carnival and be just as happy to do that as to ride anything, something kind of peaceful in watching the lightsif you ask me.

[jeffmill]

Hello everyone, My name is Jeff Millard, I just turned 45 last Thursday. I live in Maple Shade New Jersey, and I am a Christmas light Fanatic!!! My closest friend is my lovely wife Dawn. We have been married for ten wonderful years. In 1991, 2 years before we met,she had major surgery for Ulcerative Colitis. She was told then, that many people in her condition only live five years. She has been doing verywell until just recently. This past November she developed an abcess in the area of her original surgerywhichcaused enough damage that she had to go through it all over again. Febuary 1 she spent 8 1/2 hours in surgery at U-Penn hospital under the hand of agreat Surgeon. 7 days later I brought her home, and she has been recovering very well from the first phase of her surgery. In May she will have to go back for the 2nd part which will last for 3 hours and a 3 day stay. I thank God for her, and herimproving health every day. She is the strongest person I've ever met, and being around her makes me happier than I've ever been in my life.

Back in December she saw the Carson Williams visit on the Today Show. She TIVO'd it and when I came home from work she played it and asked me if I could do that for her. There has always been a slight competition between my neighbors and I. It has to do with who decorates first, how much they decorate, how long it takes them, what is different each year, and whether or not you choose to light your display on Black Friday. All the little nit-picky things that go along with having good neighbors...

It seems that after joining Planet Christmas and learning about the wonderful possibilities for decorating, our house and display will be in a class all it's own on our street. I'm not telling anyone but the guy next door. He's helping me set up.

I have since purchased 96 channels of LOR. I spend about 2 hours each day tinkering and building things for the coming Christmas. I will animate the lights from last years static display, andwe will add aMega, and 15 mini trees (from Bill Gremler's design) along with the two reindeer my wife found recently. I would also liketo make the Candy Canes that Zac Cutt made from rope light to surround the yard with.

At this time I am happy to say that I live to make this display for her. I am so excited about the day after Thanksgiving. I want so much for this to go well. God has blessed me with with a wonderful gift, and right now, she wants me to go get her a bottle of water from the kitchen. So I have to go now.

Thank You everyone for being here and sharing. :]

jeff

[Kaeleb]

My name is Kaeleb, I'm 37and I'm a newbie to all this.


My father was the official house decorator at Christmas time. I used to tease him and call him Clark..but every year, without fail, he was out there decorating his house, no matter what the weather. In April of last year he was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer and died 3 weeks later.
Last Christmas was the first year his house was dark. Around that time, someone sent me the "video that shall not be named" via email. I decided that, had my dad seen it, that is what he would try and emulate. And he would be here instead of me.

So I have decided that I would continue the tradition on my house in his honor. This will be the first time I have ever decorated my own house and I plan on doing it BIG!

Thanks for being here, PCer's!

[Scott Loftus]

Kaeleb:

Welcome to PlanetChristmas. I am happy to hear that you plan to continue your fathers love for Christmas. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away. There is alot of information already posted, but sometimes things get missed. You have come to the right place. Enjoy.

[maggie]

Hi, I'm Brenda. I'm 33, live in Ontario Canada, I work with young offenders. My parents always put lights on the house, my grandfather had a massive cut out santa, sleigh and reindeer that went up every year on the side of his house (really wish I had that now, just for the memories). Our display started to grow when we finally bought my mom her 3rd blowmold. It was the TPI Santa sleigh and reindeer. She also had a snow man and a santa blowmold. I moved back home with my parents about 8 years ago (Partly due to massive student loans and mostly due to ill health on their part and 2 young siblings at home).

The display began to grow then. Each year it has expanded bigger and bigger. We use a combination of blowmolds, inflatables, plywood cutouts, wireframes and lights. I found PC around 2001 but got really interested in 2002. It was thanks to all of you that I knew when a roadtrip was in order and found some of the blowmolds I wanted in Walmart and Kmart. I am also kicking myself that I did not get the Santa's best ones that I saw at Kmart. Figured I would get them the next year (little did I know they would become scarce). I am now out of power, I have no windows left to run cords through and am seriously thinking of another panel with plugs just for lights. Did invest in many sets of LEDS after boxing day.

My display has truly become a family affair. My father and brother used to be the original scrooges and now my brother climbs on the roof for me and my father drives me nuts planning things all year. They also helped make some of the plywood cut outs we made(must have done a good job as 3 out of the 6 we use regularly have been stolen:(). My mani reason for doing it is the look in the kids eyes when everything is lit up and moving. We rigged up a skating Alvin (and the chipmunks) using a fan motor and used hm for a couple of years). Our community has a contest every year and we won several times for Christmas and Halloween. We were also voted 3rd best in all of the city by one of the radio stations. But I think it is watching my nephew wander threw the display that truly makes me keep doing it every year. He is 2 1/2 and this was the first year that he was really able to get out and help. He loaded up his wagon with blowmolds and helped carry them, helped me move them to where they needed to be, constantly asked questions and then became upset when he couldn't get in the sleigh and make the reindeer fly:laughing:. He was going to the North Pole to help Santa and the elves and had the sleigh and reindeer right there. In his mind they were real....especially at night when rudolph's nose glowed red!! H ehad to go and give each reindeer and kiss good bye and say bye to all the blowmolds before he could leave each day (taking him was a long process).

I have passed on my love of blowmolds to my nephew and he actually has 3 of his own! Too bad my sister doesn't share the love. I can't wait for next year when my neice is old enough.

The inside of my house is just as crazy as the outside. My christmas tree had 3000 lights 2 years ago (I cut back last year due to time) and tons of decorations, my nut cracker collection grew alot too, as did my ornaments. Halloween is just as crazy.

When not thinking about Christmas lights (Is there such a time? I have to come here everyday and check ebay in case I see something), I love to garden, go to garage sales, bargain shop, and spend time with my neice and nephew. Can't wait, it is almost time for gardening here in Canada and garage sales should be starting too:waycool:. In fact, our big gardening show is next week, can't wait to see all the newheucheras (coral bells, my other addiction), anf get some cool new gardening things. Soon it will be time to open the pond (thinking of how to expand it...shh don't tell) and finally, I am still planning my treehouse. I have 2 perfect trees in my back yard that I have been planning to build a treehouse in. I keep telling people it is for my nephew but I think I am going through my second childhood:laughing:and really it's for me ha ha!

Brenda

[mdforbis]

Hi, I'm Matt Forbis and live in Manchester Missouri, a nice suburb of St. Louis. I started this hobby when I was in 3rd or 4th grade and put up just a few strings of lights. It grew until last year, reaching about 18,000 lights in 2004. In November of 2005, I moved to where I am now, after having graduated from college, and buying a house finally. Since I didn't move until november, 2005 only had about 4000 lights, in the form of one single "mega-tree" that changed colors. Only took about 3 or 4 hours to set up, because that's all I had time for. I'm hoping 2006 I will get back on track, but since moving out of my parent's house, yard space has drastically decreased. In addition, I sometimes travel alot for my job.

I went to the University of Missouri at Rolla for a degree in Electrical Engineering, and now work in the Process Control field. I work doing control system configuration for refineries and chemical plants around the world. Putting up lights is fun, but my true passion is controlling them. Even though I might be a few years behind the times, I much prefer building my own controllers to say I did it. Currently I have a setup that is very similiar to what was Dasher with an I/O board from the late 90's, but I designed and built it completely by myself. This years project is to try to upgrade and go microcontroller based, which will be very similiar to the technologies you can buy now, but I will have done everything myself.

Some of my other hobbies include ham radio, and computer programming. If it involves electronics, it's probably at least somewhat interesting to me. I've been a ham radio op for about 6 years now, and even though I don't talk on the radio that much, working on circuits is always fun for me.

You also might notice, I tend to be a lurker. I've been around Planet Christmas since around 97 or so I would guess. I remember when I first started reading, there were sometimes only a couple of posts a day. I'm going to try to start participating a little more, since I can probably add a little insight to some questions. I also frequent computerchristmas.com, since they dive deep down into the hardware details of controlling lights.

I don't have a website that I would post. It was actually maintained in college, but now it's just sitting there. Maybe sometime I'll get around to updating it and putting some pictures on the web.

Well, that's what there is to me. A definate dork who enjoys electronics.

[Brian Mitchell]

Hi, I'm Brian Mitchell and I'm a lightoholic. I live in Claremont, NH and have been a Christmas light fan basically all my life. When I was a little kid, my best friend and I would always go downtown when the workers were putting up the town decorations (Lighted garlands with decorations in the center crossing the street all the way thru downtown) We would collect the burnt out bulbs as they changed them. Why? I don't know. We just did. Christmas at my house was always HUGE. Decorations in every room and huge piles of presents on christmas morning. I would make what seemed like miles of paper chains and had every room in the house outlined with them. (except my brother and sister's rooms. They wouldn't let me in).

When I was old enough, I took over the lights and did C9's on the porch and front bushes. Years passed.
When my fiancee and I moved into our first apartment we bought the first of our own lights in 1988. I single set of 150mini chase lights. I still have the set and use it every year although I stripped out the control box this past year for LOR. In 1990 we moved into our house and had 2 sets of C9's , 1 set of mini's and a blowmold santa. Every year we added more. Then I started to create things. the first was a plywood cutout tree covered with reflectors so when cars headed up or down the street their lights would bring it to life. Next was my 8ft long Merry Christmas sign. Then Santa's sleigh with a reindeer and Christmas cow. Each year were more lights on the house. Not a lot, just a few sets each year and few more blowmolds and a couple projects in the yard. The Gingerbread train, Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Schroeder. My wife started putting our animated figurines out on the porch and we created a path around the house for people to tour. After a couple years of thinking and planning I finally took on building a miniature carousel and although I'm not an artist or a carpenter I'm proud of how it came out. The past couple years I added Rudolph, an 8 ft Bumble and Yukon Cornelius. Hermie will join them this year.

For a few years now I've wanted to computerise my lights and had looked a bit into Dasher, but I didn't want to (read as too lazy) build my controlers. Last year I discovered LOR and jumped on board in July. This put all my loves to good use. All my years of running sound and doing lights for rock bands was a big help. I could see the coreography in my head and I could make it happen. I have never had so much fun at Christmas as I had last season. 11,000 lights and 16 channels, A new Santa Clause suit and way too many extention cords. Seeing the smiling kids and talking to the people who enjoy what I've scraped together was about the best Christmas present I could get...and give.

This year it will be more lights, channels, songs and cutouts, a few old projects are being freshened up and my rookie status with LOR will be over. Every song I sequence looks better and better.

OK...you can wake up now...I'm rambled on long enough. That's my story from northern New Hampshire.

Bri

[Martha Kleder]

Hello, my name is Martha Kleder and I live in Fredericksburg, VA.
I have been with PC for a couple of years. However, I have had a Christmas light problem since 1992. I am 45 and widowed, no kids, just two dogs who demand use of the yard which limits my display a bit. Also, last season as well as this, I've been in grad school, which limits the time I have to expand the display.

My decorating started when I was first married, with a small Empire nativity scene and lots of mini lights in a long row of boxwoods. It soon expanded to more blowmolds, more lights, and a custom-built weather proof creche for the nativity so I could use power strips to plug in all the figures.

Two years ago I moved to a new house and turned to PC for help in making all the blowmolds and wireframes purchased for one place fit and work in another.

For last year, I increased the breaker box in my separate garage (different from the one on the house) to 200 amps, which doubled my capacity.

My display has three areas that grow and change.


The landscaping fronting the street is turned into a wilderness scene with animated deer, lighted trees and bushes, a flowing stream with a jumping fish, a bear, squirrel and rabbits.
The community/county access road along the side of my house is decorated with patriotic - Americana theme. I have a 6-ft tallsaluting soldier at the entrance, yellow ribbons with pictures of deployed military friends, toy soldiers, a Santa in DCUs carrying a "loaded" candy cane and Old Glory. Down the gravel drive I have street lights, carollers, a church with an 10-member kids choir, a hat-tipping snowman, etc.
The final scene isan "at home under theChristmas tree" theme with Santa Snoopy, baby elves, Flash the family dog,and lots of toys and gifts. The front of the house has a large nativity scene with a kneeling Santa.
All of my animation to date use the small controllers that come witheach wireframe. I am hoping to purchasecomputer animimationin the near future to rotate which scenes, or items in those scenes, are lit -- entire wireframe displays, blowmolds and other things that pull too much power for the small controllers. I don't want to do anything over the top with it since there is a 5-year-old directly across the street from me and the punkin needs her sleep.

Additions for this year include a fishing Santa for the stream, extra bunnies that I want to hook to a controller and make "hop" around the scene. I have some other ideas, but none of them are final.

The "holy grail" of my decorating remains my roof. Lots of area to decorate there, but I'm a one-man-band and the idea of doing the roof alone just scares me.

I hope to add LOR and learn to weld, so I can create more unique displays.

[mattyjaco]

Hi, my name is Matt Jacobson, my friends call me matty... I'm 21 yeaars old and have been on PC for about a year or so. I was the one in the house to decorate since I was about 10(with some help from dad). 2 years ago i decided to put a large static display followed by 16 channels of LOR the next year, with only 16 channels and about 2 months of programming and design the display recieved so much attention. This year i am going to learn to make my own wireframes (hence all the welding questions) and go for another 16 or 32 channels(depending on $$ situation). In the off season I enjoy and have almost finished a degree in Event Planning.Thats about it!

[sweetcar13]

Hi my name is Michael and I am a chrirstmas light enthusiast!!!!!!!! I am 20 years old and have been decorating my house since I could walk. When I was younger I had to rely on my parents for money and my display crawled along. Now that I have money my display is taking off at an incredible pace(last year i added 30 blowmolds alone). My display currently houses 150 blowmolds and 10,000 lights. My display is not run off of LOR or do I think it ever will be, I'm going to keep things old fashion to comerate the people that decorated before me that have inspired me to do what I do(and to save my self the headache all that computer stuff is very confusing). As you can tell I am a blowmold man. I would like to add more lights but putting up lights is more time consuming and my time is limited. I am fairly new to this site and am really glad I found it. Seeing all the other young people on this site made realize I'm not crazy I just have a unique hobby. With this unique hobby I have set a very lofty goal for myself. In my lifetime I hope to aquire one of every blowmold ever made. I know this goal is crazy and probally unatainable at least it gives me a reason to spend a ton of money on blowmolds lol. I forget to mention it above but I live in Cincinnati, Ohio. I want to close by saying I'm glad I finally found a place where everyone understands why I have to decorate so big (I get tired of always trying to explain it to people) and to say keep on decorating, its not christmas until you've blown a fuse or two.

[Joel]

Hello, my name is Joel Jenkins and I am a Christmas enthusiast in Gray, Ga. I have been working with my wife Kathy for the last 12 years decorating our yard and house for Christmas. We started our first year together in 1993 with a small number of Winfield cutouts, which I would cut and Kathy would paint and add her ownmagic to create works of art. I have climbed 30-50 ft up trees to put up lights. Some years I have not got as much done as others. I go crazy with ideas andsometimes get them done, but more often I back off with development problems or knowhow.I do a little woodworking for fun and it helps a lot with some of the displays. . We havealways had a nativity. 2 years ago we put out a new lifesize Winfield nativity. We have penguin. gingerbread and snowmen villages. The last 2 years, I have laid out 2 250 ft rolls of 12-2 lines from 2 circuit breakers and well over 50 extension cords. This includes 12 plugin boxes, scattered around the yard. Last year we added several wireframes and this year we hope to do more.Our yard is a corner lot,with a dead-end street on one sidewith 1000 ft of frontage and about 600 ft of main road frontage. I have a 30 x 60building for most of my work,a 56ft semi trlr for storage and 30x36 wood bldg for storage.We have built 4 floats for the church,2 won 1st place and another 3rd. Kathy does a lot of seasonal decorating for the church.

My wishlist: Get into the light control game. Add more lights. Build a castle of 12'hX16W. Build a 3-d church to replace my 2-d, with arched windows so light can shine out. Perm electrical burial so I have a jump on power. Add another meter. Build 3-d gingerbread house. Learn to weld so I can make my own wireframes.

[TexasXmas]

Hi everyone!

My name is Ethan. I'm a 30-year-old displaced Yankee (from Philadelphia) living in Seabrook, Texas now for several years. (Though I've had it explained to me that technically, I'm now a "**** Yankee" since I won't go home.) I'm also recovering from years of repressing my CLF tendencies and decided to finally take the plunge and do what I've been waiting for nearly all my life. My main problem is that I never wanted to be "that guy"... you know, the one everyone talks about for doing this or that. I came to the realization that my neighborhood displays are never going to be great and someone's got to get the proverbial ball rolling.

I've been waiting for some kind of creative outlet for my love of all things electronic, but especially lights. My dearly-departed childhood neighbor used to call me "Thomas Alva Edison" because of my obvious fascination with lights. Keep in-mind that this was when I was two years old. If there were a few switches in close proximity to each other, look out! I'd be entertained for quite a while. (Ok, I'm still easily-amused, but it takes a little more to get me going now!) I'd always loved Christmas lights as a kid. We even tried our best at our townhouse in Aston, PA, and though we once referred to the randomly-blinking lights as "Electric Boogaloo", it was never quite enough. Making matters worse, we had a neighbor who was an electrician... needless to say, his house would have been even more awesome had LOR existed back then! We'd usually do the "drive-around on Christmas Eve and look at the lights", but the last time we did that, when I was only 10, we got locked out of the house and had to break a window to get back in.

After years of doing virtually nothing (parents lost the decorating spirit after the divorce), I own my house and can do whatever I want, but haven't done anything more than the typical candles in the windows & a few minis on the bushes out front. Last December, after watching Carson's infamous video and seeing what can be done with Christmas lights, I literally said to myself "I've finally found my calling!"

I declared right then that I would do something like that for 2006... so here I am! LOR is on order and I realized yesterday, while I was standing in front of shelves of extension cords at Home Depot, that I've got it bad when buying 500 feet will certainly not be nearly enough, even for my "small" display. Knowing that this really is a labor of love and beginning to see the time & expense that goes into it, I'm even more in-awe of the big dogs!

I'm already planning for 2007!

... and thank-you to Joel for bumping this thread so it bumped back to the top!

[Buddy McCarrier]

Hello, my name is real name is Matthew, but everyone calls me Buddy so I prefer that. I live in South Williamsport Pennsylvania (Home of Little League).I am 16 and can drive so thats cool.I as well am a blowmoldolic and I love yard art as well. I started to decorate when I was 3 when my Gram gave me first blow mold. They were a poloron santa and a TPI snowman, which I put out year after year. I have about 200+ blow molds for the holidays. I love to decorate for Christmas, that is the time besides Halloween we go all out. I do the display entirely by myself except when the lights go up on the roof. I have about 10 inflatables, and about5 wireframes. I am addicted to myspace which is like a chat room. I love ebay and get a thrill out of it when I win an item. I check yard sales, auctions, antique stores, and flea markets for blow molds. I have a lot of yard art as well. I mainly buy mine. I do have a few that were made. The yard art I like are the ones that are made out of plastic or there card board, but there a card board plastic. I got a lot of my yard art from walmart, but now they do not carry much anymore. If they do its only made out of wood. I also like flags. I have hundreds and hundreds of them. I have eight flag pole holders the big ones and 7 that go in the ground. I am starting to convert my little cousin into loving blow molds so that is a plus. I hope to one day to have one of each blow mold. My goal by Christmas is to have the big Taz made by santas best so that I can have all the cartoon molds. Also, I would like to have the Empire Snowman with a poinsetta on its arm.

[Scott Loftus]

Hello:

My name is Scott, I too am a christmas light enthusiast. I live in Sherman IL which is located north of Springfield. I have been decorating outdoors for about 20 years now. I have a wife (Richelle) and 2 kids. Five years ago, our house burnt down in Springfield. We lost everything in the fire except for all my christmas items which were stored in the shed outback of the house. That was the only thing that we owned after the fire besides our vehicles. Today, my display continues to grow a an alarming rate. My blowmold count is around 350 and my light count is over 70,000 for the 2006 season. Last year was my first year using LOR with 48 channels. This year, I am doubling the channels to 96. I also have one more secret for my display this year, but can not reveil it yet until the contract is signed.



WHO's NEXT?????

[Becky Fitz]

Hi, my name is Becky and I'm a Christmas light enthusiast (that wasn't so bad to admit). I live in Jackson, GA. I'm 52 and I love to put out Christmas decorations.

When I was a little girl, my parents always took us out to look at lights on Christmas Eve so Santa could put out the presents (we always went to my grandparents on Christmas morning). The house that I remember most was awesome and this was back in 1960. I know that the owner's daughter had died and he decorated his house in rememberance of her. I was amazed that someone had the money to do everything that he did at that time. It filled me with wonder. Christmas wasn't the same after he quit decorating - I think he wasn't able to handle the work involved.

Anyway, after my 3 sons left the nest, I finally had money to start decorating my house. I started small in 1999. We moved to a new house and I just tried to keep up with the neighbors. The next 4 years I added more. This past year, I had about 25,000 lights. This included 8 deer, sleds, palm trees, pink flamingos, santas, and other misc. items. My neighbors have thrown in the towel in defeat. This year they are only going to put up an arrow pointing to my house.

In January I found a deal on trees and bought 14 of them. My husband thought that I was joking, but he found out that I wasn't when we came home and the front porch was full of boxes.

My father-in-law, George, always helped me put out the lights in the yard. My husband and sons put the house lights up but I do the rest. George died 5 weeks ago. This year is going to be hard. I always said that I put the lights up for my grandchildren (4), but I think that George got the biggest kick out of seeing everything lit up. He would sit in the living room where he could look out the front door and jump up and look when someone would stop and look at the lights. I'm really going to miss him.

My boys always make jokes about my lights. My youngest son is an electrician and was working on a house about 10 miles from me. They started talking about Christmas lights and the guy started talking about this house he has to take his sons to every year - it's their family tradition. It turns out that he was talking about my house:waycool:. Now, to me, my life has come full circle. I remember the house that was decorated that we went to every year when I was a little girl and hopefully this family will start decorating too.

I have a confession to make though. I don't have the first blow mold in my display, but this year that will change. I've gotten hooked on them. I hope to place a large order in August. Can't wait to get them.

I started seeing references to PlanetChristmas while doing a search for wire frames. I joined in November, 2005 and try to look at the site every day.

For Christmas last year my husband kept asking my what I wanted. I told him I wanted enough circuits so I wouldn't have to hear him preaching about too many amps on one circuit. I got my own panel boxes (2) with 200 amps each. I can put out whatever I want now. Unfortunately none of my lights are computerized. I might get that part started next year.

Too all that are dedicating their displays to a loved one, please know that I will be thinking of you while I'm putting up my display.

[csmith]

Welcome aboard Becky! :ornament:

We're here to help!

[Dale W]

My name is Dale, and I have a problem too. I used to loathe Christmas Decorations (it was because I worked too many Christmas's in College and on the offshore oil rigs post-college). I did not become a decoration enthusiast until my daughter was about 6 years old and I happened to see an inflatable Grinch in a neighbors yard. We asked him where he got it, and he could not remember the drug store's name. I searched all night at every drug store within 20 miles and ultimately paid $160 for one on ebay. It was a must have.

Since then, my exterior decorations have grown to include the shrubs, gutters and roofline (in multi color lights only). Our neighborhood sponsors a decorating contest and the competition is fierce - but everybody uses white lights. As a bonafide rebel, I had to tweak the judge's sensibilities by going with only multis. After a couple of years, I was able to grow the display to about 16K lights, without the use of any controllers.

We, the family and I, had the opportunity to go to Pigeon Forge, TN, one summer for Vacation. We stopped in the local Christmas lights store and discovered their ropelight snowflakes and purchased all they had. Throwing them into our tree was a natural thing to do, but I did not have any means to control them.

Last year, I convinced the Mrs. to allow me the purchase of 32 channels of Light-O-Rama. We were able to install 20,000 lights on the house, in trees, shrubs, on the gutters, on the roofline and on two mega-trees and several minitrees and broadcast our music for all the cul-de-sac to hear via FM transmitter (and we still did not win the decoration contest [the winner had about 10K white lights]).

30+ inflatables later, I am ready to admit: Yes, I have a problem. I like to decorate my house for Christmas! I like to read all about how to decorate year round, and I have watched Marty's video at least 12 times.

[james_vanscyoc]

Hello to all , My name is James, AKAJimbo,I have been playing with christmas lights for a couple of years. and this past christmas found PC. I was amazed. during the after christmas sales i aqiured 30,00 more lights and a dozen blowmolds santas and snowmen. I have even started the yard sale thingy. My wife of 17 years even ordered me a flag pole for a mega tree for my birthday, which i should be receiving soon. Too sum it all up I have had a blast reading ideas from others, peoples great finds, and even repling to some post even tough not that often, OK a little about my self I work at the University of Richmond "Go Spiders" as a Sous Chef , married with 2 boys 15 / 12 . James

[Joel]

Hello Becky, I seeKathy and Ilive just down the road from you. Sorry to hear about your father-in-law. Keep up your spirits and lookto the future. You mayhave to start training the grandchildren to help with your decorating. My 4 yr. oldgranson, James,has said he is going to help again this year. Last year he was helping me while I was up the tree putting up the lights. I told him to go get his MaMaif I fell out and hewent right then and got Kathy to make me get down out of the tree. He also made me do timeout. Wehad our first granddaughterlast week, June 2 and she will be big enough to help in no time. I am going to give a 16 channel LOR a try this year. I am also adding about 80 sets of LED to all my previous lights.

[Scot Meyers]

I'm Scot Meyers, I AM A HOLIDAYGEEK!!

I am 39 yrs old and live in THORNTON CO. My Wife Ruth and I have 5 childeren who make this hobby so special(I do it for the kids). I have been decorating since 1986 and love this stuff. I found Planet Christmas in 2003 and have enjoyed all the people I meet and all the cool stuff I have learned to make thanks to this site. I listen to christmas music all year long and light up my house for all the holidays. I can't get enough of this stuff . I really enjoy the fast chat feature that PC has and am on a lot.

Thanks chuck for this site because of your dream I get my fix every day!!

[Becky Fitz]

Joel, glad there's someone else in my area addicted to lights. Where is Gray, GA?

I might have a little problem this year. My middle son, who is the father of 2 of my grandchildren, has joined a church that does not believe in Christmas or anything associated with it. I'm heartbroken, not only because of the joy I've seen in their kids eyes every year that I decorate, but because I feel like he's moved away from the Christian beliefs that he was raised with. The affiliation is Messianic Israel Alliance. They believe that Christmas and Easter are Pagen holidays. They have planned on spending Christmas in Florida with their new found friends. That means that my husband will spend this Christmas without his dad for the first time and now my son, his wife and 2 of our grandchildren. I don't know what to do.

I'm not against him and his beliefs, but don't make my husband, the rest of our family and me suffer because of this. Please keep us in your prayers. I'm hoping he will see the right way. My husband doesn't know about any of this right now; my son's supposed to tell him this weekend. He's been really down since his dad's died in April. I don't know what this will do to him.

[Joel]

Becky, I feel for you. The minister at the church, Kathy and I used to go to was very much against Santa Claus and I guess that comes from the way Santa has been commercialized over the last few years so people have forgotten Saint Nickolaus and the Spirit of Christmas. Sometimes it seems kids will do things, even though they know it goes against what their parents believe or stand for as if to test the strength of their love. It seems like contrariness sometimes but that is the way it is. Much as it happens when a minister's child may go through some of the worst nightmares to test their parents faith sometimes. All one can do is pray, love them and hope they will soon return to the right path. You will be in the position of smoothing over the feelings between your husband and your son, so just hang in there. We will be pulling for you.

Gray isat the intersection of Highways 18 and129 between Macon and Milledgeville. 12 miles north of Macon and 15 miles east of Forsythe. We live on Greene Settlement Rd 1 mile south of Gray on 129, and 2 miles from Hwy 129.

[laura_s]

Hi my name is Laura Stotler I am 25 and live in Brookfield Illinois about 15 mins from Chicago.I am married have 2 kids ages 6 and 6 weeks. I spend most of my days at home with my kids, attending school and playing on the internet (club pogo). Iam currently working on my masters in criminology and plan to attend medical school some time in the next few years.My only hobby's i really have are christmas decorating and collecting( hubby says hording) I have a few collections I am pretty proud of like my movies which I can say I have well over 2000 movies and my book collection got pretty big I can say I probaly have every single sylvia browne book and almost all books dealing with paranormal activity. I have a pretty large collection of christmas lights and decorations. I just started collection xmas stuff in 2002 but in 4 years I have literally broke my garage door due to the over packed xmas storage. I just bought a new house and plan to move in a few weeks have to admit the first thing that sold me was the fact that it had a heated 3 car garage so i can work on my xmas stuff as well as store them all neatly and less cramping. My dispalys are not computer controlled as of yet but I would like to try and get it going soon and have atleast a few lor boxes this season. Even tho I am not computer displayed I do have a lot of lights and lots of wire frames.The only problem I have to over come this year is lack of power. My new home I will be moving to is a non conforming 2 flat and there is an apartment upstairs and the power has not been upgraded so we will all be working on 160 amps. If I can get the electric figuered out soon we should be ok by xmas.

[rebelkate]

Hello, I'm Kate. I'm a 26 y.o. teacher, and I'm a Christmas Light Enthusiast! I think I've found my home :)

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. When I was a kid, my parents did not have a lot of money, so when I asked for toys, I would always hear "Maybe for Christmas." My mom is a great bargain shopper, and would shop year round for gifts. I always thought it was quite normal to buy a Christmas gift in February. :happytree: (I like the smiley!)

I fell in love with lights when I was three years old - we were visiting my grandparents in Arkansas for Christmas, and we drove to see some fabulous house (located somewhere near Little Rock), and I was hooked. Later, I lived in Germany for a time, birthplace of the Christmas tree, and was always amazed by the traditionally decorated trees, with actual candles to light them! Anyway, I found myself here in Virginia for high school till now, and was not as impressed with the Williamsburg tradition of putting a few candles in the windows (and that's it!! Can you imagine?). So, I set out on my own personal quest to bring light to the world at Christmas. AFter all, in my mind, the lights are just a fantastic symbol of what Christmas is all about!

My parents indulged me, especially when I started earning and spending my own money on the decor. While, nothing I did at their house could come close to being considered for any awards (due to budget and time limitations) - it was rather radical for the subdivision. Now, there are several other houses on the block that have begun to decorate as well, though Christmas eve is still reserved for luminaries and window candles only. But when I visit my parents at Christmas, it makes me smile to think I started it all. My friends always joke that I need to marry an electrician to wire my house for christmas!

This spring, I just bought my first house - and realized I now have over half an acre of trees and land to decorate. Its a blank canvas! My parents (who I suspect would prefer a single strand of chasing lights), have gladly given me the collection of 50,000 lights I amassed in their garage. I've decided its time my decorations grow up, and I've come to PC to get serious about decorating. Speaking to some neighbors, I've discovered my subdivision has the same luminaries-only policy for Christmas eve, but I think I can work with that.

My dream is a synchronized, computer controlled lights only (only wireframe figures) display, complete with an fm transmission of my large christmas music collection (according to my itunes playlist, I have enough music to play five days without repeats). Two years ago, I had an additional inspiration. A local church does a three day "Bethleham live" reenactment, which is quite powerful. I thought it would be really great if one day, I could have some sort of Bethlehem in wire-framed lights, telling the story of Jesus birth - from shephards in the fields, to wise men traveling from the east.

One really exciting plus about my new house is that it was originally built for an electrician. So, I have a lot more circuits to work with than a typical house the same size, and all the circuits have been clearly labeled with a nice diagram - which will make things much easier for me, an almost complete novice when it comes to wiring.

I hope to be around here a while, and maybe in a couple years, I'll have enough of a display assembled as to post some pics :)

-Kate

[jfelix]

OK, here it goes. Hi, my name Joey and I too am a Christmas Light Enthusiast. I live in Dallas, Georgia which is northwest of Atlanta. But I am originally from New Castle, PA (near Pittsburgh, Go STEELERS!) I moved to Ga in 1999. I am 30 soon to be 31 in about a month and am married with 3 children. I am a sixth grade teacher in Paulding County , Georgia, and my students get a kick out of my addiction.

My wife thinks I am obsessed and her parents say I am possessed. Either way, I wouldn't change it. My addicition began as a young child at my grnadmother's house. I am Italian and come from a large family. Her (my grandma) house was always where the family congregated, so we always put out lights and decorated. C-7, minis, whatever. She also put out a ceramic nativity that she made, which I inherited two years ago and will always be in my display. One tradition my granparents always did on Christmas Eve was to place tea lights on papre bags and line the driveway and sidewalk. She had passed 2 years ago, exactly 3 months after my mother passed. They both loved Christmas and decorating. It is funny because I have been around PC for about 4 years but never posted untilOctober or Novemebr of 05. One of the first things I made was the mini trees from floral easals, which I got from PC. It was Thanksgiving of 04 the one and only time my parents ever came to visit. I had my mom (sick with cancer) and my Aunt helping me make them. That year was really special because my dad helped me decorate the house and Mom got to see how farI would go withdecorating our house.

I always tried to decorate my mom and dad's house as a kid and teen, but we could never afford to go all out. But I sowre when I owned my own home look oout ( I am working on the look out and probably always will). I would also help my friend decorate his parentshouse. I tok a year off decorting because of apartment living in 1999. Then I met my beautiful wife Jenny. She already had a home and when she took me in I immediately wanted to put as many lights on her house as possible, and we did. We have since moved into a better home and each yearour displaygets bigger. As my son Joegets older he wants to add more stuff to the yard. I think he will become as addicted as I am. He is hoping that da-d is going to build a train, some cutouts (frosty, rudolph, and charlie brown) and make the lights dance. Which we are definatly going to make the lights dance. I am the proud owner of 32 channels of LOR and hope for more. I am sure as my ttwin daughters grow it will be no different.

Placet Christmas has only fed my addiction. Before PC I would only think about Christmas from September on, but since I have become a member it is a daily thing. Somebody please help me... When I am not thinking Christmas I think of Halloween, had a small display this past year for the kids. I also coach football, play sports, and lift weights. I am hoping to try my hand at a bodybuilding show in Boone, North Carolina in Septemebr. I just want to say I really enjoy PC and all who are a part of it.

One more ting, I hope to inspire others around me to light upin celebration of the holidays and the birth of Jesus.

[blearning]

I read Joey's and decided I should as well.

My name is Bill Learning a implanted Canadian to Smyrna, GA. I work in telecommunications now. I am a geightaholic (geek and light), better then a half century of being amazed by lights, I have been this way before it was cool to be. At the age of 16 I started on being an electrician, and after a 4 yr apprenticeship I was running crews of 50 to 100 ele’s for several different firms. The thing they disliked about me most, was when I was finished a JOB I would walk around and turn everything on and I mean everything alarms, lights, Ovens, sirens what ever could be turned on was. I would then walk out the door … and yell “we are done, this place is LIT” and drive off into the sunset. Ok maybe I didn’t drive off into the sunset but I could have. Fond memories, after that I turned to Drafting and electronics and then computers. My first modem was a 150 baud and I did messaging with a text messenger (not at all like the cell phones today)

Anyhow I was raised with lighting, Dad was a “signman” and we had all kinds of lights to play with, neon, fluorescent, chasers, Jacobs ladders you name it, My passing year thesis in school was on what else Lighting and the effects they had on moods and food as well as other things.

The biggest light I put up was on a tower up in Cambridge Bay, it is atop of a 600 foot tower and is used for guiding planes in the north. The light flashes like a big Flash bulb it is 6 feet across and has fans on it for cooling. It had to be raised up to top of the tower with a helicopter as it was sealed and in one piece. It was at the time the biggest light ever. Dad and I contracted to wire it 200 amps 240 volts. I scurried up the tower as the helicopter came in to pick up the light. It took about hour to climb that high. And the helicopter carried the light up to the top of the tower and literally dropped it on top and I bolted it in place and wired it. After it was done we were in the shed drinking in celebration and I asked the pilot how many times he had done it as it seemed as if he had dropped it. He said “this is the first time, and I did drop it, I couldn’t see you and just guessed if it was right” I said so you could squished me up on that tower, he said “yup” .. and we both laughed, drank beer and watched the light flash. So if you ever fly in the north country near Cambridge Bay and see a flashing light .. that is it.

In the sign business Dad and I would marvel at the 4 channel mechanical chasers, then it was 8 channels which were better and then 16 channels were superb. If Dad was alive today he would freak with +160 channels. I remember when we saw our fist 8 channel electronic chaser it was truly amazing all sealed in an epoxy type thing with leads sticking out of it.

We sat on the deck of the truck and read the instructions half a dozen times. Up until this point you had to cut fiber disks and slide and place them on a shaft that a motor turned and little cams would go up and down, you could adjust the speed of the motor and when it was fast it sounded like a playing card clothes pinned to fork of bike that flipped on the spokes. The faster the motor would go the more noise it made.

He designed a watt not a what .. a watt not a what, yah a watt (inner circle Joke) and no he didn’t invent the watt, he designed a watt and registered it, which likely the older bunch would have seen on the highways. I haven’t seen one for years, it was basically an arrow head about 6 feet across at the base, with 15 or 20 lights at the wide end and went down 2 or 3 lights at a time to the tip of one light. It was used in a lot of establishments to point towards the Business … it normally just had Yellow bulbs. I think they were 60 watt bulbs and was as bright as bright could be in the dark chasing inwards to illuminate the driveway of businesses. It would chase to the arrow head and around in circles and flash and pop and whiz, of course you could only have one operation but you could have one of several.

I always decorated I didn’t need an excuse … just some lights. Dad was the same way decorated just to decorate, and if it had lights in it all the better. I remember a big pastel colored Christmas light for some reason. When I was younger I remember these big Christmas lights Dad put up and they were the ugliest pastel purple you could find, I suppose they were on sale. There they were all over our house, but you know something I still remember it not because it was gaudy looking but because it was Christmas and we had lights on and cutout snowmen in the yard, and Plastic candles along the side walk and a Santa Clause in a sleigh. I must have been too young to help but I also remember Dad painting them in the garage.

Last year at my place was about 10,000 static lights but this year I am doing 160 channels with a 200 amp sub panel, and I thinking about 50,000 Sequenced lights. Just cause and it will be cool. I did a 4th of July sequenced display with 4500 lights and it was awesome. The wife is now looking for things for the display. The neighbors loved it and expect great things for Christmas. SO I have no choice

[Michael B]

I thought with so many new members now would be a good time to bring this thread back.

Read the rules in the first post and enjoy getting to know your fellow PCers.

I will enjoy reading all the new post and meeting many new and some seasoned members.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Michael B :cool:

[DarrenJeffries]

I cant believe i didn't see this post 1st time around. Well here goes:

My name is Darren, I live in Cirencester in the Cotswolds, England (around 90 miles from London).I will be 31 in 3 days (sniff:shock:) I have been a member of planetchristmas for 5 years nearly. My inspiration for decorating is entirely the fault of this board! I personally blame Chuck:}. I remember watching a video of Chuck's News interview and how he made his display up at its location then at the house. It fascinated me. Now you have to remember that in the UK we are not exactly a nation of extreme enthusiasts at anything (except maybe Soap Operas like Eastenders!!!) so to doa display like mine is virtually unheard of. There have been a few here and there that have cropped up over the years but i think all in all it is not that common. My display now consists of over 25,500 lights for 2006 controlled by X10 and LOR.

What does the future hold? well i am not really sure, all i know is that it will be better than ever.

I would like to thank a few people for my voyage into the world of displays. Obviously Chuck Smith for putting up with this Brit crashing his party all those years ago!! Jeff W for sending me lights 5 years ago to use on my display and for giving excellent advice through the years. Marilyn, for also welcoming me into the PC community and offering a wealth of advice (I still display the knitted decorations :}) and John Kaz for generally being the source of most of my lights for the last few years, without him it would not be what it is today.

[John Lomnicki SR]

Hello, my name is John Sr, and I am a Christmas Light and Flamingo enthusiast!!! I live in Roseville, MN which is just adjacent to the Twin Cities. I have been around PC for about3-4 years.

The first thing you have to know about me is I love competition and Christmas Lights. To be more specific , my son and I are passionate competitors! Sometimes to a fault! It is he who "introduced me to this hobby. I already had everything I needed for year one in my attic. We just took it out and put it up at his urging.We have had dueling displays for the past few years and of course he has been determined the winner... but wait until next year.

I also have an abiding interest in flamingos and Christmas. I believe that it is the true official Christmas bird, specifically the PPF (Pink Plastic Flamingo). I try to combine both elements- Christmas and Flamingos in my displays.

Thank you, my name is John Sr, and I am a Christmas Light and Flamingo enthusiast!!!

[eldoradoboy]

Hey there guys N gals, im Christopher a Christmas Light, Christmas Music, and Computer enthusiast.

I began at 7 years old with one string of Glow brights I got for my birthday (dec 11,1975) on a bush near the front window... and from there I began putting up Lights outside, by age 15 id won 3rd place in a contest, at age 18, first place and a spot in a local newspaper. This year my display is now running animated as many others are first timers at animation. 20,000 Lights and 64 channels adourn my 2 year old ranch home in Grove city, ohio near columbus.

My other Love is Christmas Music.. at the same time i was beginning christmas lighting i also had discovered the local "easy listening" radio station and the fact they played 1 christmas song per hour right after the news.. and each week added another song per hour until "36 hours of continuous christmas" on christmas eve and christmas night. so alas I also collect old christmas music and run a Live365 Station called "beautiful christmas"

my 3rd Love is Computers.. my house is automated by computers... zoned HVAC, home theatre, security, Lighting are all connected.

alas the idea of combining all 3 into 1 was very intruiging.. i remember reading an ad in circuit cellar for Animated lighting products in october of 2004 but id just moved to my newly built home and never did anything with it.. 2005 kept me so busy with work I barely got my static display up, so along came 2006 and my work schedule was again way too busy.. until 3rd week of september my schedule opened up... and so I called AL, found planet christmas and here i am.

my occupation is telecom engineer, i get to evaluate all kinds of new Networking, PBX, VOice over IP, voicemail, and other gear, as well as work on large installation projects as we put systems in hotels...

Other than the hobbies listed above I also enjoy building chevy hotrods, cooking ,travelling, Old music, Dancing, and deep conversation....

-Christopher

[Michael B]

Hi everyone. We have a lot of new members, PLUS is coming, it is the middle of summer, ... I thought I would revive some old threads that will help to build community and bring us closer together. This is one of my favorites, Jeff Womack started this one. Read the rules in his first post and add on. Read some interesting items about some of the people you chat with.

Have fun! :cool:

Michael B