2010

The rumor mill grinds on
When Santa isn’t looking we sneak off to the elf lounge and surf the Internet so we can keep up with everything happening south of us. Santa can’t come in because he won’t squeeze through the door. Us elves didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, you know. I really hate to admit this, but I’m quite impressed with all those Christmas display pictures and videos we’ve been seeing. We watched some show called “Invasion of the Christmas Lights 2” and easily recognized some of you PlanetChristmas characters. If I was to believe everything on TV it seems you put…
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The world tour
It may well be the most unique concert tour ever undertaken by an individual performer. “The House on Christmas Street International Tour 2010” is entirely supported by fans of one song. Singer, songwriter and 2010 Grammy nominee Judy Pancoast wrote “The House on Christmas Street” in 1998 as a tribute to those mega-decorated houses she’s loved all her life; the ones that can almost be seen from outer space and make the passerby wonder how the homeowner is managing to pay the electric bill. “There seems to be one of those houses in every town,” says Pancoast, “but to my…
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Santaland
Santaland opened for the first time 25 years ago in Madison, MN, a small rural town in west central Minnesota. Inclement weather moved the original Santaland from the frigid cold to the cozy 7,000 square foot second floor in the Heather Nursery & Floral building located on Main Street. Hundreds of volunteer hours and more than $15,000 of in-kind donations have allowed a dedicated group of local and metro elves to create an indoor holiday display that rivals the real North Pole. Santa was speechless when he first saw his new throne. Surrounded by hundreds of packages and more than…
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More views from the UK
One of my other hobbies is oil painting. I create landscapes and abstracts in oils purely for my own pleasure. I was talking with a friend at an art exhibition just last month and she said half jokingly that I should put my art in for the Turner prize (a prestigious art prize in the UK that can catapult the winner into art superstardom.) I said don’t be silly, my paintings are nowhere near good enough. No she replied, not your paintings… your Christmas lights. That got me thinking. We spend lots of time and effort on our displays. But…
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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 a blinking bulb or two – this was Christmas Lights Version 1.0. Then, in the late 90’s, a movement started to sequence lights to music using personal computers. Since the late 90’s and up through 2010, that same basic system of controlling lights has prevailed – a personal computer with software, that controls a box, that turns a typical strand of incandescent or LED (Light Emitting Diodes) lights on and…
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Christmas stockings
The perfect place to set the record straight about Christmas stockings is PlanetChristmas magazine. They’re so much more than decorative pieces in the home that people take for granted. Knowing where the Christmas stockings tradition comes from, what they should look like, where they need to be hung and what should be in them will make you quite the expert in Christmas trivia at the next holiday party. Here’s some Christmas stocking history. There are many different theories about the history of Christmas. Most agree that the story of Saint Nicolas not only attributed to the name Santa Claus but…
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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 beginning. Gallo, the largest beer manufacturing company in Guatemala, has held a tree-lighting ceremony for Guatemala City (and surrounding areas) for the last 24 years as a way to give back to the community. For their 25th Anniversary of the tree lighting, they decided to purchase a new tree; complete with a fully synchronized musical light show! To accomplish this task, Gallo contacted Barrango, Inc., located in South San Francisco.…
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The Rumor Mill
We get satellite TV in the workshop up here at the North Pole. Ernie (the super-geeky elf: think thick glasses, pocket protector and odd social skills) figured out how to tune into the local channels of all the big cities across the USA. We can’t help but notice the local news out of Orlando is much the same as Seattle or Denver. Crime is up, the economy is tough and kids do the craziest things. We even noticed the negative political ads, no matter where they were from, used the same voiceover talent so we’re convinced there’s not an honest…
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A Christmas Carol
Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge’s name was good upon ‘Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his…
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Modern marvels: vampire plugs
How many 100’ orange, pink and green extension cords are used in your Christmas display? How many times have you run a giant cord to power that one string of LED mini-lights? Ever used a 100’ cord when a 17’ one would do fine? Do you hate the color orange? There’s an answer to your electric distribution challenge. If ever there was a modern marvel in the Christmas decorating world, it has to be the little devices we call vampire plugs. Take a length of lamp cord, add a vampire male connector to one end, a female at the other…
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