It's About Time!
Welcome to your July/August 2006 edition of the PlanetChristmas
newsletter! It is published regularly and covers relative topics
for the Christmas decorating enthusiast. A web version of this
newsletter can be found at
http://www.planetchristmas.com/NLJulyAugust06.htm.
Getting ready for Christmas 2006
It’s August and believe it or
not, time for many of us to start thinking seriously about our Christmas
displays. Disneyworld began setting up their five million light
extravaganza this month. I was in Hobby Lobby last week and saw the
shelves were being stocked with mini-lights. There are rumors
Garden Ridge is already selling Christmas lights and I’m willing to bet
Wal-Mart, Target and K-Mart have warehouses of stuff ready to be trucked
to their stores. Many of us also got our Christmas catalogs from
www.ActionLighting.com last week. What a wonderful time of
year!
As our heads start dreaming of twinkling lights reflecting in the
eyes of children watching our displays, it’s easy to get overwhelmed
with all the work we want to do. If you’re new to setting up
Christmas displays, start small. If you’ve been at it for a few
years, remember to grow a little every season. If you’re a
seasoned pro, take a really good inventory of what you have and think
about changing around your display to use some of those vintage items
this year.
The biggest challenge we all have is keeping expectations in line
with our pocketbooks. It’s very easy to get carried away, buy too
much and become disappointed when we don't get everything done. I
can’t stress enough the importance of beginning small and expanding a
little each season.
Tom B. from the PlanetChristmas chatroom started a
good thread recently. He admits to being a decorating addict and
then gives some great tips to get the items you want for this year’s
display as well as save a little money. Here are excerpts (some
are edited) from his original post:
My PlanetChristmas chatroom name is TOM B. and I am a Christmas Light
Addict! I have not, and will not calculate the cost of my display.
But, I am thinking about making it weather tight so I can live in it
when I cannot make my house payment in January.
Steps I'm taking
to save money:
Searched the Internet for the cheapest location for the garland. I
ended up talking to the manager at Hobby Lobby -- he says they have them
on sale every year ... and the price he quoted me is cheaper than any
place I have (so far) found on the net.
Made an investment in LEDs for this project. Searched the Internet
and PlanetChristmas to find the vendors who could provide such at a
reasonable cost, and prior to when they would be in the stores. The LED
section of the PlanetChristmas chatroom helped greatly in this endeavor.
I am walking through Lowes and several other stores weekly to watch
for extension cords to go on sale.
I am also lurking in several stores to watch for Christmas items to
be stocked and marked for early purchases.
Some items that are new or are "not proven, must have items" often
have not been ordered by store buyers in large quantities. So, if you
see something you like early, buy it ... you may not get a second
chance.
Some stores have a "no return policy" on Christmas items -- others
have 100% satisfaction guarantee. Pay attention to this when you
purchase anything, particularly Christmas decorations.
Steps for budgeting:
Set a budget maximum ... and LIVE with in it!
If you have to scale back, do so. Only you will know what your show
"could have been" if you had an endless amount of cash. So, start with
what you can reasonably afford.
Spend a little each month, instead of all at once. Buy extension
cords a few at a time throughout the year ... it is easier to budget
over 12 months.
Everything Tom B. says makes sense, especially budgeting over the
entire year. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, when the rest of
the world is spending billions of dollars on Christmas decorations and
fighting long lines at the stores, I’m spending nothing because I’ve
been plotting, planning and buying the other eleven months. I
can’t tell you how many times I’ve been walking through a craft or
hardware store between January and September, seen an unusual part,
immediately thought of a way to use it in the Christmas display and
bought it on the spot. Bottom line: buying Christmas decorations a
little at a time, but year round makes it much easier on the pocketbook.
Tip of the Month
Got a Christmas website? Now’s the time to clean it up, make
sure all the hyperlinks still work and insert some blank pages for your
2006 display pictures. Once the decorating begins, the last thing
you’ll want to think about is revamping the website. Don’t have a
website? Creating one is easier than you think. Check with
your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and you might already be eligible
for a free site on their platform. If you want a more public site
with a great name (sorry,
www.PlanetChristmas.com is already spoken for,) do an Internet
search for “website provider” and you’ll be overwhelmed by choices.
Even better, checkout the “Web
Sites for Christmas and building them” forum in the PlanetChristmas
chatroom for some great advice.
What’s
New at PlanetChristmas?
The
www.PlanetChristmas.com website has just been revamped. Some
users were having trouble with the fancy Flash graphics, so the site has
been simplified. Wonder around. You’ll be amazed at what can
be learned.
This time of year, my favorite PlanetChristmas
webpage is
http://www.planetchristmas.com/FigurePower.htm. It gives
information on how much current various types of Christmas lights
consume. Planning ahead to distribute your power load makes things
much easier the first night you light up the display and have to run
around resetting electrical circuit breakers.
Checked the Chatroom Lately?
Talking about a gold mine of information, this is the
place! If you haven’t found it yet, go to
http://www.planetchristmas.com/talk.htm. We’ve recently added
new forums and made it a little easier to get around. Once you’re
a member, feel free to change the look and feel of the chatroom by going
to “My Account/Preferences/Board Theme.” Also remember the part of
the chatroom you can see when not logged in is indexed by the Internet
search engines, but once you’re a registered member, many new forums
open up but are invisible to the search engines. PlanetChristmas
believes strongly in protecting your privacy.
Got something to Announce/Buy/Sell/Trade?
We’ve added a dedicated classified ads website at
http://classifieds.planetchristmas.com. There are no fees for
the PlanetChristmas community.
Don’t forget Blogging and Instant Messaging!
Just start at
http://www.planetchristmas.com/talk.htm if you want to read/write a
blog and instant message with others in the PlanetChristmas community.
Help us Grow for PLUS2007!
If you attended either of our major PlanetChristmas Lights Up
Symposium (PLUS) events, you know what a great time it is. Not
only is there so much being taught by the experts, but you learn even
more networking and sharing information with other enthusiasts.
Just in case you haven’t heard yet, PLUS2007 will be
in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, August 2-4, 2007. Watch for a new
www.plus2007.com
website to be unveiled in early September. The site will provide
all the details about classes being taught, vendors and how to register
for the event.
The key to success for PLUS2007 is the continued
growth of the PlanetChristmas community. Check the PlanetChristmas
chatroom and calendar for the possibility of a local mini-PLUS in your
area during 2006 while waiting for PLUS2007.
Newsletter
Suggestion?
Have a suggestion for a main topic or want to write
an article for a future PlanetChristmas newsletter? Send us an
email:
newsletter@planetchristmas.com! If you know someone that
really should subscribe to your newsletter, send them to
http://www.planetchristmas.com/Newsletters.htm
Next time: look forward to more Christmas
decorating tips.
Chuck Smith of
PlanetChristmas
