Chuck Smith

2009
95 foor Christmas tree in shopping mall
In last month’s PlanetChristmas magazine, I shared some tips on how to get started with a large scale Christmas display at your home. It’s time to follow up with examples of how important planning is in the world of commercial decorating. Perhaps the most common object associated with the holiday season is the Christmas tree. Add animation and musical synchronization to that tree and you have an incredible crowd pleaser. Many shopping centers realize this and are starting to install giant trees within their venues. Unfortunately, most don’t realize the amount of planning that goes into a successful display. It’s…
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2009
Lasers in your Christmas display
Lasers have not been used much in Christmas lighting displays. They are typically viewed as too confusing for the Christmas decorator or the effects were dull and boring. The technology has evolved over the last few years and the laser industry is making systems that are user-friendly and spectacular looking for the Christmas decorator. Lighting designers and everyday Christmas decorators have been using LEDs and incandescent lights effectively. Some of these larger displays are controlled via DMX that make all of the lights on the house seem like they are turning on and off or changing colors to the music.…
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2009
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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2009
Indoor displays
It has been slow going this year setting up everything for our six open houses in December. There have been lots of new things to add, old things to repair, unloading and unpacking, thousands of trips up and down the ladder to reach everything on those darn top shelves and hundreds of trips up and down the stairs with my bad knees. Running cords to the lights, music boxes and animation is always a major chore, especially since you can’t have any of those ugly wires showing. It has been lots of hard work but it’s my obsession and I…
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2009
Over The Top Display
PlanetChristmas started it all with the original worldwide decorating contest back when we were all newbies. Every year more people get excited about decorating for Christmas and Franklin Flair in Nashville, Tennessee didn’t let us down. It’s one thing to put out a bunch of lights, but Franklin computerized them as well as built a castle in his front yard. The judges were most impressed. Here are some details in his own words: My display started back in September with the building of a castle. This is not an ordinary or small castle but a structure 14’ high by 30’…
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2009
The Rumor Mill
LEDs Light Emitting Diodes. Let me get this straight. These things are suppose to save the world. They last forever, use next to no electricity and are revolutionizing the Christmas decorating world. I only need to say this once. Bah Humbug! LEDs. Lousy, Expensive and for Dummies. We definitely don’t need any new fangled technology up here at the North Pole workshop. After using good old electric light bulbs for the last hundred years there’s no reason to change, especially since they’re proven to work, unlike some of the slacker elves around this place. I can buy 60 watt light…
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2009
How about some plastic?
Known by various names including Light-ups, Lawn Art, kitsch, illuminated figures, or simply blow molds (two words, not one), they are a type of Christmas decoration that become an obsession for many. Who are the “blow molders” and what are they after? They’re another segment of the Christmas decorating community with a passion for the good old days and a desire to bring the joy of the season to everyone. Blow molds are not just milk jugs, soda bottles, and gas tanks. To a blow mold enthusiast they are Santa in his sleigh, elves carrying gifts, prancing reindeer, a battalion…
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2009
Streamlining your display setup and teardown
Time is precious and it becomes more so as the pre-holiday decorating season gets underway. This is my ninth season for an over-the-top display and fourth year of using a synchronized light and music show. As the display has grown bigger and elaborate the set-up has become more time-consuming and complex. The deadline to “turn-on” the lights still looms. Each year I discover new techniques that save time in my display set-up. Some are simple ideas that could save hours of time and some are tested techniques that will not only save time, but make the process easier. Before 1.…
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2009
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 that do extreme Halloween displays. Their uses for motors, pneumatic actuators and levers never cease to amaze me. Now, I know what you’re saying; you’re saying “Blasphemy! This isn’t PlanetHalloween Magazine…it’s PlanetChristmas Magazine!” To which I reply “Feel free to write your own column.” To be fair, we do have a lot of creative people around here as is illustrated by the fact that it took two editions of PlanetChristmas Magazine to cover just a few of the ideas people…
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2009
LED Products for the entertainment market
LED (Light Emitting Diode) technology in the professional entertainment market has been on a fast track in the entertainment industry for the last six years after originally being introduced at the 1997 LDI show (http://www.ldishow.com/) to a crowd that often yawns at unproven technology. It was then that Color Kinetics, a Boston company broke new ground by merging microprocessor control and a network address with LEDs to create and pioneer several new intelligent solid-state lighting devices. Armed with a multi-million dollar Research and Development program and patent upon patent, Color Kinetics brought the entertainment industry into the LED lighting revolution.…
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