Chuck Smith

2012
Show testing from an iPad
So, you want to test your lights, and the more you have the more you need to test as you get ready for launch night. Like most however, I started off my first year of doing animated lights using the more primitive 2FSS run method. Better known as the two feet, two sneakers and stairs method, aka: running upstairs to turn on display, then back down to see if it works, then back up if it did not, or if it started some of them, but not others. Wow, plain exhausting, and the more lights, stairs, yard you have, the…
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2012
4 x 4 Design
So it’s time to take the big step and animate your light display? Since most people use Light-O-Rama controllers we figured they would have a few tips on how to get started. We talked to John Potochnak and he said they’re now getting serious with simple plug and play solutions. Light-O-Rama is about make available 50 music sequences that should help bring animation to more displays. The challenge is everyone uses their light channels differently so it’s tough to create sequences that will work over a variety of venues. Luckily the pros have figured out a trick that will make…
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2012
SuperStar Sequencer
For Christmas of 2008 I spent untold hours building my first SuperStar display using 288 segments of green and white rope lights. Controlled by 48 multiplexed channels it was a true example of Light-O-Rama’s motto of “imagine it, then do it.” Traditional mega-trees can spin, but my SuperStar could do patterns in all directions. Most importantly it could shoot beams downward from the star to the ground. The next summer I got an email from Light-O-Rama announcing a device called a Cosmic Color Ribbon. I thought, well they did it, they made my SuperStar display obsolete. With 12 Cosmic Color…
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2012
Light-O-Rama
In 1975 Dan Baldwin was a newly minted computer science wizard and had just married his longtime sweetheart, Mary. That first Christmas together they bought a three foot tree upon Mary’s insistence and a family tradition was born. For the next 20 years that little tree, plus some accessories, was just about all the decorating the couple did for the holiday season. Something changed in 1995 when Mary took it upon herself to go outside and string a few lights along the top of the fence. Dan looked at her work and said “we need more lights!” Soon there were…
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2011
Rumor mill
I have a normal eared brother that lives way down south. He’s a Christmas amateur, meaning he only thinks about it in December. His decorations consist of a predecorated tree from the discount store and an inflatable snowman in the front yard (with coffee stains on it, for some reason.) The good news is he knows to be a good dad to my super-cute niece that very much believes in what we do up here at the North Pole. My brother did his annual ‘Christmas Lights Tour 2011’ after extensive research on displays found via the Internet and made an…
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2011
Rumor mill rumors
I’m a Christmas dude. Always considered Halloween people to be way-too-weird for this normal-thinking elf. Zombie movies, haunted houses and a fascination for anything gory is just not normal. But, there’s that viral video of a house in the UK decorated for All Saints Day with giant pumpkins singing to the music. Not a drop of blood anywhere in sight. All of a sudden I’m seeing Halloween decorating potential. Kind of a warm-up to the real deal we call Christmas. Checkout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfcNoMnKjrY. At last check it had over seven million views. Watch out Carson Williams! Word on the street is…
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2011
More Christmas village tips
Christmas villages began during the 1700’s with the Moravians building a Putz. What’s a Putz? It’s a display featuring the nativity and tells the story though different scenes about Mary and Joseph on their journeys leading to the birth of Jesus. As the years went by these displays became more elaborate and by the end of the 1700’s people would have nativity scenes in their homes under the tree, on the fireplace mantle and even in china cabinets. By the beginning of the 1800’s these scenes started to have other items added and stories began to unfold. By the Victorian…
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2011
Blowmolds
Over the years many of us have seen this question asked over and over in the PlanetChristmas blow mold forum: “How many blow molds do you have?” It’s a funny thing, but it seems that a lot of enthusiasts/displayers/collectors cannot answer this simple question. I know I can’t. Blow molds have a tendency to multiply over time. Ask any enthusiast on the forum. I recently saw a signature line that read “Blow molds are like potato chips, you can’t have just one.” This is so true! Once the plastic bug bites you, it doesn’t like to let go. Before you…
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2011
Indoor displays
Well it’s time to really get serious about your displays, both inside and out. Now, why in the world should we think about the inside, especially with all the time and work associated with doing the BIG display outside? There are many reasons to also consider doing an indoor display. First and foremost, who can walk into a home that is all decked out for the holidays and not smile? Indoor decorations add so much to the holidays, i.e. villages, Santa collections, etc. They become family traditions with pieces passed down from generation to generation. The little ones get so…
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2011
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 “Scuttlebutt” and luckily the government doesn’t mention me, this time. I’m on pretty thin ice as more secrets are revealed, at least when it comes to Christmas. With the price of copper trying to catch up with gold, this might be the year for non-traditional Christmas lighting. Less wire means less copper. What we thought was high priced in the past might look pretty cheap this year. I’m starting to see color changing tape light hit the shelves. It looks…
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