It's About Time! 

Welcome to your March/April 2006 edition of the PlanetChristmas newsletter!  It is published almost every month and covers relative topics for the Christmas decorating enthusiast.  You can always find a version of this PlanetChristmas newsletter at http://www.planetchristmas.com/NLMarchApril06.htm

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Infrastructure is the Key 

Ever wonder how electricity from your power company makes it all the way from the generating plant to the meter on the side of your house?  How in the world can punching a bunch of numbers into your telephone connect you with almost any other phone on the planet?  Where does all that stuff in the toilet bowl go when you push the flush handle?  All this is part of the infrastructure that makes our lives easier.  We all take infrastructure for granted until it's not there for any reason.   If you think about it, infrastructure allows us to do things faster.

Consider your Christmas display and whether it has any kind of infrastructure.  If every year is like putting the display together for the very first time, you should consider some sort of an infrastructure to speed the assembly and teardown.  I’ve had a computerized display with over 250,000 lights.  If I had to build it from scratch, run the power, program the computer and troubleshoot the lights and sequences, it could easily be a three month project.  My display went up in a little over two weeks.  Disassembly and storage was less than a week.  Infrastructure is the key. 

This is the perfect time of year to think about your display infrastructure.  Time and money invested now will reap huge dividends during the busy Christmas season. 

Consider how you get power to different portions of your display.  Do you make some quick-and-dirty taps into your electrical breaker box?  Do you run wires through windows or on high traffic sidewalks and driveways?  Do you risk your life climbing a ladder to get power to the roof of your house?  Spend the time now to put in some safe and permanent electrical breakers and plugs.  You might even look at putting some permanent power plugs at strategic locations around your yard.  Give a lot of thought to exactly where the plugs should be located.  Also consider putting in access holes or conduit to route wires safely out of the house and/or under the high traffic areas. 

What about placement of those computer synchronization circuit boards?  If they aren’t already in some sort of weatherized box, be giving that some thought now.  Some people make the enclosures part of their display and place the boards inside blowmolds or weatherproof Christmas presents.  You might consider hiding ugly enclosures in the shrubbery or on the side of the house, but now is the time to make sure an electrical outlet is close to each. 

Do you start each decorating season by scrounging every possible extension cord around the house and hope you have enough?  Do you end up having to use a 100 foot cord where a six foot one is all you need?  Color code those extension cords now.  You’ll end up using fewer cords and saving money.  Go to the home center and buy an assortment of colored electrical tape.  Create a color=length code that works for you.  For me, 6'=green, 10’=white, 25’=red, 50’=brown and 100’=blue.  I wrap a piece of colored tape around each end of the extension cord.  You’ll be amazed how your valuable extension cords will be used much more efficiently when assembling the display. 

Do you have any sort of lighting inventory system?  The more stuff you have, the harder it is to find something in a hurry.  I used to collect the boxes ten reams of copy paper came in.  They’re the perfect size to hold lights, extension cords and just about anything else you can think of plus they're very easy to stack and store.  The best part is they’re small enough not to get too heavy.  Put a number on the bottom right corner of each side of the box.  Now keep an up-to-date list of what is in each box.  When you need that string of 50-mini teal colored lights, scan the inventory list and you’ll know it's in box 27. 

All of these time saving tips are part of your fundamental infrastructure.  Everything you can do now is time you’re saving during display setup and teardown.  Got other suggestions for the Christmas display infrastructure?  Share them in PlanetChristmas chatroom.

Tip of the Month 

Ever wonder exactly how many strings of lights you can plug into a wall outlet?  Go to www.northerntools.com and search for “amwatt” or just go to http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_697
0_200321255_200321255 .  This $25 gizmo plugs inline with your string(s) of lights and tells exactly how much current is being consumed.  Use your findings with the information at http://www.planetchristmas.com/FigurePower.htm to know exactly what is safe.  

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What’s New at PlanetChristmas?

The www.PlanetChristmas.com website is constantly being updated.  Wonder around.  You’ll be amazed at what you’ll learn.

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.

Checked the Chatroom or Blog Lately? 

The PlanetChristmas chatroom is a goldmine of information!  If you haven’t found it yet, go to http://www.planetchristmas.com/talk.htm.  It has recently been restructured to better protect your privacy and prevent search engines from scanning everything in the site.  Don't forget you can also instant message with other enthusiasts in the PlanetChristmas community using our FastChat capabilities as well as create your very own PlanetChristmas blog.

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. 

The key to success for PLUS2007 is the continued growth of the PlanetChristmas community.  Mark your calendar now for August 2-4, 2007.

Be sure and check our chatroom for local PLUS gatherings.  The forum is called: "Mini-Plus Events for 2006". 

I’m currently looking for someone with a very strong Public Relations background willing to help with the planning of PLUS2007.  If you’re up to the task, please send me an email at csmith@planetchristmas.com

Newsletter Suggestion? 

Have a suggestion for a main topic or want to write an article for a future PlanetChristmas newsletter?  Send me an email: csmith@planetchristmas.com  If you know someone that really should subscribe to your newsletter, send them to http://planetchristmas.com/lists/?p=subscribe

Next time: look forward to more Christmas decorating tips. 

Chuck Smith of PlanetChristmas