Chuck Smith

2017
That house on Christmas Street tour continues
Many of you PlanetChristmas folks know the story of how my little song, “The House on Christmas Street,” was discovered by a decorator online in 2006 and quickly caught on. Well, in 2010 I got the idea that it would be fun to go around the United States and visit some of the many decorators who “put me on the map” by using my music in their displays. I thought a tour would be fun where I would show up and do a concert on the decorator’s lawn or in their street or driveway with their display as the backdrop,…
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2017
Another 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 Chrtistmas time. This is tough because people love the old traditional tunes when it comes to Christmas but we’re going to give it our best shot. Here’s the official PlanetChristmas top 10 list of the most popular tunes people will use to create over-the-top Christmas shows in 2017. 1. A Holly Jolly Christmas by Michael Buble’ 2. Wizards in Winter by Trans-Siberian Orchestra 3. Santa Tell Me by Ariana Grande 4.…
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2016
Rumor mill rumblings
The workshop has been buzzing about all that recent presidential excitement in the USA. We’ve never had an election here at the North Pole. Santa has been in charge from the beginning and no one has complained. He must be doing something right. All other countries of the world should take note. Remember Geek My Tree (www.geekmytree.com)? They’ve been to several Christmas Expos. Brad and his father created a great product that let you light your tree in just a few minutes with the latest RGB smart pixel technology. They appeared on ABC’s TV show called Shark Tank and got…
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2016
Cold Weather Decorating
The holiday season always has great television shows like Crazy Christmas lights, Christmas Gone Wild, The Great Christmas Light Fight… all help to reinforce to our friends and family that we’re not the only ones to have a hobby that borders on obsession. Reflecting on Christmas and the hours spent outside assembling, testing and managing my display, I came to realize that geographic location on our planet brings unique changes. Whenever I’m surfing the web or watching those shows looking for ideas I am often jealous to see others working on their displays in the sunshine and wearing t-shirts. My…
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2016
Top 10 music list for this upcoming holiday season
At PlanetChristmas we get to see a lot of Christmas light displays and in our Spring 2015 issue we figured out the most popular tunes for 2014. We checked with various sequence vendors and then scanned YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook for Christmas light shows where the lights danced to the music. Wow! What creativity. It didn’t take long to figure out people really liked Trans-Siberian Orchestra and the theme song from Disney’s movie Frozen in 2014. Now that we’re so smart we talked to more music producers about what they thought would be hot for 2016. This is tough because…
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2016
Cutouts the easy way
Ever wondered what goes into creating the wonderful Christmas decorations known as cutouts? Probably not, but you’re still reading… so I’ll go ahead and tell you. Imagination, time, materials and a small amount of talent. You read that correctly. You don’t have to be a great artist to create eye catching cutout characters for your lawn’s Christmas display. Remember when you were a kid and loved using Crayons to create those beautifully colored pages? That’s all the artistic ability it takes to create a cutout. If you can color within the lines, you can probably create a cutout masterpiece! What…
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2015
Rumor mill rumors
Friday night we cranked up the satellite dish and caught the opening episode for Gold Rush on the Discovery channel. Vast landscapes of pristine snow. All us elves got a bit misty eyed because it so looked like home here at the North Pole. Unfortunately, Santa hasn’t let us outside for over a month because toy demands are through the roof this year. We’re not complaining, at least not too much. Busy elves are elves staying out of trouble. The more toys we build means the more smiles there will be on faces come Christmas day. Remember Big Mouth Billy…
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2015
Top 10 Christmas Spirit definitions
It’s a little too easy to get caught up in all the Christmas hype this time of year. If you were from another galaxy and landed here in the middle of December you would conclude Earthlings do nothing but buy stuff in great quantity while bragging they all have the spirit of Christmas. So exactly what is this Christmas thing? In the PlanetChristmas Forums there’s been a slow burning thread trying to define the Christmas experience and Christmas spirit. Let’s just say a lot of deep thought is happening. For this edition of the magazine we thought we could summarize…
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2015
Our forecast for the Top 10 music tunes
At PlanetChristmas we get to see a lot of Christmas light displays and in our Spring 2015 issue we figured out the most popular tunes for 2014. We checked with various sequence vendors and then scanned YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook for Christmas light shows where the lights danced to the music. Wow! What creativity. It didn’t take long to figure out people really liked Trans-Siberian Orchestra and the theme song from Disney’s movie Frozen in 2014. Now that we’re so smart we talked to more music producers about what they thought would be hot for 2015. This is tough because…
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2015
Music Licensing
Let’s chat about music for a moment. Music and Christmas go hand-in-hand just about as much as eggnog and rum go in mug-and-glass. A growing number of Christmas decorators (both commercial and noncommercial) are enhancing their displays with music, either in the form of pleasant background atmosphere or a dazzling synchronized light show. In fact, many of our companies are built on the very idea of synchronizing stellar lighting choreography (sequences) to music. Music brings with it a deep sense of tradition, emotion, and legal confusion. What? Yes, PlanetChristmas forum members have spent years debating the question of music licensing,…
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