Lights

Christmas Lights!

PlanetChristmas video from 2002
Back in the good-old-days the PlanetChristmas display at the Smith household was quite popular. The local Fox 17 news outlet from Nashville, Tennessee came out to film the display. That night they featured it on the local show… and it was obvious the news anchors had never previewed the video. Quite entertaining. The video is a bit blurry (keep in mind this was 2002 and before modern high definition TV). Some quick facts: 134,000 lights in the display 548 electrical circuits 7.8 miles of wire 212 minitrees
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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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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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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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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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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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Top 10 Christmas show tunes
At PlanetChristmas we get to see a lot of Christmas light displays. The staff started wondering if there was any such thing as a Top 10 list of tunes used in these shows. None could be found so we’re taking on the responsibility. Let’s just say it’s a lot easier said than done. 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 like Trans-Siberian Orchestra and the theme song from Disney’s movie Frozen…
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Halloween versus Christmas
In the past, it seemed that no two holidays could be at more opposite ends of the spectrum than Christmas and Halloween. Today, however, Halloween is viewed more as theatrics and entertainment than the celebration of something dark and has subsequently made major gains in popularity. Home haunters, professional haunts and theme parks are all growing their Halloween offerings to include much more technology… much of which overlaps into Christmas as well as other holidays and even other areas outside of holidays. As an example, when we first designed the FireFly lightning simulator family, it was all about Halloween. Churches…
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Being on national TV
The Belcher family was a participant in Episode 1 of ABC’s “The Great Christmas Light Fight” for 2014. We were included in the TV show which aired December 8th. We didn’t come out on top but Mr. Weaver deservedly won the coveted light bulb trophy for his wonderful Disney castle and character creations. First, a little about our display Our 2014 Christmas display was an experiment in visual arts in which we “projection mapped” the front and one side of our two story brick and wood home. Projection mapping is a fairly new art form which in its simplest form…
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Made in the USA?
That’s a question that we hear frequently and truthfully – though we’ll admit that we may get a bit tired of repeatedly answering that question – we’re not really tired of hearing the question. The reason is because that question indicates some good things. It shows our customers are a cut above the masses, flocking to the big box stores each season, eagerly buying the cheapest Christmas lights they can find. It shows that our customers are smart enough to recognize that price is only one consideration of many in determining the true worth of a product. And yes, it…
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