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    Freakonomics talks about Christmas Lights

    Freakonomics ‘The Economics of Everyday Things’ did an episode on Christmas lights.  About 15 minutes in you get to hear a little from Chuck Smith at PlanetChristmas. Listen to the podcast…

    So Many Santas!

    One guy, a camera, computer and too much time. John Wernega plays his music arrangement of “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.” This video shows some of the fun, crazy things that…

    Where are Christmas Lights Made?

    Ever wonder where all the Christmas lights come from in the 21st century? My first thought was Walmart… Thanks to our friends at Christmas Designers, we can gain insight into…

    Time to fix that Christmas Light string

    The best time to fix troublesome Christmas light strings is during the off-season. Here’s a pretty good video for attacking those cheap incandescent light strings:

    We’ve made it too complicated!

    Remember chaser strings from long ago?  Wrap one of those around your Christmas tree and suddenly it had personality.  The string had a controller at the end about the size…

    PlanetChristmas way back in 2023!

    Here’s a short video (just over a minute) that shows the highlights of PlanetChristmas 2023. The last major light display at the PlanetChristmas world headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee was back…

    A Better/Cheaper RGB Pixel Matrix Solution?

    I’ve been thinking about adding some sort of pixel matrix to my Christmas display so I could do more messages, graphics and video.  A P10 RGB panel display or pixel…

    Thinking about RGB pixels?

    Back in the old days you would plug in a string of Christmas lights and they would just turn on.  Easy. Technology started getting involved about a decade ago. Think…

    Make your own wireframe for the yard

    Ready to create your own wireframes to continue the theme you have evolving in your Christmas display?  You can always go to a local welding shop but it gets expensive…

    How to fix a blow mold?

    Does your Christmas blow mold need some tender-loving care?  John Yanik created an excellent video to guide you through the process.  Check it out! Standby while we load this from…

    How do they make Christmas lights?

    So, how does the factory make a string of Christmas Lights?  It really helps to have a specialized machine and a lot of automation.  This YouTube video is a bit…

    Holiday Lights at Cheekwood Trains 2022

    What happens when you mix a giant model trains layout with Christmas lights dancing to the music?  You end up with Holiday Lights down at the TRAINS! display at Cheekwood…

    Really worth reading...

    Some of our favorite articles:

      Talking to the pixels

      OMG This has geekfest written all over it. The PlanetChristmas Magazine staff was told to build a pixel tree. As the whiteboard filled up with things to figure out, one…

      Starting a Christmas business

      In the last three editions of PlanetChristmas magazine, I’ve written about sequencing a display for others, planning your own large scale display and a behind the scenes look at two…

      The largest computerized Christmas tree in the world

      How does one construct the largest artificial foliage Christmas tree in the world? Bi-Lingual-ly of course! But I’m getting ahead of myself . . . . Let’s start at the…

      Marking your territory

      There’s a morgue under the house according to my wife. It’s where I store most of the Christmas decorations because it’s cool, relatively dry and full of critters that love…

      Indoor decorating twists

      Cool Arctic Colors Arctic. Put your fertile mind to work and we bet you can imagine the North Pole, polar bears and really cold weather; like arctic conditions. We drew…

      Christmas lights version 3

      For nearly a century our parents and grandparents have been hanging lights on trees, houses and yards – and, for nearly that entire time, they were just static, sans maybe…

      Already planning for this season

      Are you ready for the 2010 holiday season? I know I’m excited and it’s only a month until I start decorating the inside of our home. Besides, here in Texas…

      Build a pixel tree

      If you haven’t figured it out yet, all the articles in this issue of PlanetChristmas Magazine have been leading us to building our own pixel based megatree. We’ll readily admit…

      Before PlanetChristmas

      It was 1960. I was six years old. John F. Kennedy was in the White House and the country was experiencing Camelot, we just didn’t know it at the time.…

      2022 Top 10 Christmas tunes list

      At PlanetChristmas we get to see a lot of Christmas displays. We also talk to music producers, programmers and radio DJs about what they think will be hot come Christmas…

      Then there are the rumors...

        People like to be respected

        The other day I went out to my car and found the glove box open and the owner’s manual lying…

        So many LED based Christmas lights

        I’m not worried. Well, maybe a little. It’s been the oddest thing. Until this year we’ve been quite self-sufficient at…

        The Grinch again

        Mrs. Grinch conned me into watching “Invasion of the Christmas Lights” on some cable channel last weekend. What is wrong…

        Rumor mill

        I have a normal eared brother that lives way down south. He’s a Christmas amateur, meaning he only thinks about…

        Rumor mill ruminations

        What an interesting summer with the war of the Christmas shows, each on the same weekend of July in Conroe,…

        The Grinch…

        When it comes to “Do-it-Yourself” wizardry, I don’t think you will find a more creative bunch of people than those…

        The rumor mill

        Ahhhhh. The sound of wedding bells were recently heard in the Christmas decorating world. Our very own Melissa at Christmas…

        “Yur lites R stupid”

        If you are reading this magazine then I think it’s safe to assume that you’re “one of those people” that…

        Here we go with the rumor mill

        This can’t be good. There’s been another data-dump onto the world from WikiLeaks. I just did a quick search for…

        Not the rumor mill again?

        All this time us elves thought we were watching Mother Nature’s Northern Lights up in the sky but we’re no…

        The rumor mill never stops

        Been hearing some weird rumors from participants in the 2014 version of ABC’s Great Christmas Light Fight. Decorating started sometime…

        The Rumor Mill has found more… rumors.

        Santa gave all the elves the afternoon off in early November so I wandered down to the well heated North…

        Where are the forums?

        The PlanetChristmas Forums are on an extended sabbatical. 

        If you want to engage with the decorating community, head on over to our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/planetchristmas

        If you really want to see the PlanetChristmas Forums come back on-line, send an email to Chuck (chuck at planetchristmas-com.preview-domain.com)

        No matter what, remember our three rules.  We are:

        1. Positive
        2. Family Friendly
        3. Christmas-centric
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