It's About Time! 

Welcome to your November 2006 edition of the PlanetChristmas newsletter!  It is published almost every month and covers relative topics for the Christmas decorating enthusiast. 

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Time to Get Started! 

It's early November and the perfect time to be working on your 2006 Christmas display.  The weather is getting cooler, but winter hasn't set in yet.  If you haven't begun already, use the next few weeks to setup the display at a slow-but-steady pace so you won't be rushed.  Many of us have a goal of turning the lights on Thanksgiving night.  Here's a big hint: have your Christmas display done on Wednesday so you can enjoy Thanksgiving with the family instead of worrying about your lights. 

Where in the world do you start?  Find all of your decorations and spend the time now refurbishing everything.  Untangle the light strings.  Patch the blowmolds.  Scrub the inflatables.  Wash the wireframes, wreaths and garland.  Last year the display suffered a lot of wear and tear sitting out in the weather and you would be amazed how dirty and out-of-sorts it becomes. 

The biggest challenge seems to be the light strings.  I'm going to bet at least one out of every eight strings doesn't work.  Many of the other light strings are tangled in such a dense glob you can't imagine how they ever will be used again.  Take the time now to get all of those strings in perfect working order.  Most of the major stores have light testers for $5-25 that will help find that bad bulb.  Unless you invest $150 in a professional light testing machine, throw away the strings the cheaper tester can't fix.  You'll save time and money in the long run while also staying safe by not worrying about an electrical short.  If you aren't too scared of electricity, check the tip of the month repeat below.

Extension cords… few of us ever have enough!  Find all the extension cords now and untangle them.  Check both ends to make sure there are no exposed wires.  If you have a lot of cords of different lengths, create a color code.  For me, red means 25 feet, blue is 50 feet and brown is 100 feet.  Get some colored vinyl tape (electrical tape is fine) and put a piece of the correct color at the end of each cord.  Now it's easy to spot that 50 foot cord and use it in just the right location.  Fewer extension cords are used by the time you're done. 

Go ahead and power up the inflatables in the garage.  Make sure the blower is working and the internal bulbs are lit.  Changing a dark bulb is easy.  Unzip the inflatable and find/replace the bad light.  Don't substitute bigger/brighter bulbs.  The plastic and nylon will melt leading to unplanned pyrotechnics in your display.  The same holds true for your blowmolds.

If you have wireframes, check the clips/tape on all the bulbs and repair any potential trouble.  I've been known to take a light duty power washer after my wireframes to get rid of all the grime buildup from the previous year… it really does add new life to the fixture. 

It's worth the time to create some sort of schematic showing where you are going to put everything.  Spending time with pencil and paper at the kitchen table makes a real difference when you're setting up the display.  You've already thought through the unknowns so less time is spent scratching your head while standing in the front yard.

When rolling out the decorations in your yard, label the end of each and every wire.  I carry around a roll of masking tape and a Sharpie.  When I put a string of lights in a shrub, a piece of tape goes on the end that's last to touch that bush.  Now I know to start at that piece of tape when it's time to remove the lights and I don't have to worry about lights getting tangled.  Likewise when a bunch of light strings are in a bush or tree, I sequentially number the end of each.  Take the lights off in the reverse order and again, no tangles.  Finally, label the extension cords because it makes a huge difference when troubleshooting a problem. 

If this is your first year for a computerized display, don't bite off more than you can chew.  All newbies greatly underestimate the time it takes to master the synchronization software.  For 16-32 computer controlled channels, I would allocate a minimum of one hour for every minute of song time you synchronize with the lights.  64 channels can take two to three hours per music minute.  As you approach 100 channels, it's not unusual to invest four hours or more per musical minute.  A typical song is three minutes so it's easy to do the math.  Bottom line: start small the first year and master the basics.  After that, your imagination becomes your only limitation. 

Here's the most important thing you can do when decorating for Christmas:  involve the entire family.  Get those kids learning the tricks and techniques for creating a great display so they can continue spreading those wonderful memories for future generations. 

PlanetChristmas Tip of the Month  

There's an unfortunate fact of life: the bigger your display, the greater the chance of vandalism.  If it's going to happen, mark your calendar for the prime time of Friday/ Saturday nights a couple of weeks before Christmas.  The easiest thing to do is turn on the outdoor floodlights after the display has gone dark for the evening.  You can also put up some motion sensing lights to scare off troublemakers.  With my really valuable items, I loop a steel cable through them and anchor it to a tree or the house.  Consider putting up signs saying "High Voltage at All Times", "Premises Being Video Monitored" or other deterrents.  If you're really paranoid, spend the night on the front porch with a paintball gun (I've always wanted to do that .)

Another PlanetChristmas Tip of the Month (a repeat but very timely)

How do you fix a non-working string of mini-lights?  Start by reading http://www.planetchristmas.com/Minis.htm.  One of my secret weapons is a small screwdriver with the blade the same width as a typical mini-light bulb.  If I suspect a bulb is bad, I remove the bulb and insert the screwdriver blade, which in essence provides a known good link to the electrical series circuit.  If the rest of the lights of the mini-string come on, I've definitely isolated the bad bulb!  Watch out.  This does not work with C-6, C-7, C-9 bulbs or any light string where the bulbs are wired in parallel.

"Shorting" Screwdriver	Only half of string is lit	Screwdriver shorts the socket

What's New at PlanetChristmas? 

Submit pictures of your 2006 Christmas display and they'll end up in the PlanetChristmas Showing Off section of the website.  It never fails, the next year video production companies will find those pictures and some homes end up on TV shows.  Here's your chance for those 15 minutes of fame!

PLUS2007 

Just in case you haven't heard, PLUS2007 is in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, August 2-4, 2007.  The www.PLUS2007.com website is now online and accepting registrations for the event.  Here's a hint: the registration price goes up soon, so register now and save some money!

If you attended either of our major PlanetChristmas Lights Up Symposium (PLUS) events, you know a great time is in store.  There is plenty being taught by the experts, but you also discover so much more sharing information with other enthusiasts and also talking directly to our vendors.   The key to success for PLUS2007 is the continued growth of the PlanetChristmas community.   

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 more 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."  Don't forget to update your profile so others can learn about your display.  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. 

PlanetChristmas Radio is on the Internet! 

The PlanetChristmas radio station is now on-line and available to anyone with a fast Internet connection to tap into.  Christmas music 24x7.  How can you go wrong?  Find the retails at http://www.planetchristmas.com/PCRadio2006.htm

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 about Instant Messaging!  

Just start at http://www.planetchristmas.com/talk.htm if you want to instant message with others in the PlanetChristmas community.   The user interface has recently changed so it's much easier to get around.

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