Unique props

Unique props that don’t fit the typical categories

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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Sleigh Time

The only thing that could improve your high tech Christmas display is a Santa sleigh direct from the 19th century! We decorate our homes with the latest in LED lights. They’re synchronized by computer to our favorite Christmas carols. Not only can our displays be seen from other planets, but they sometimes remind viewers of a space ship. This is all very cool, but maybe we need to balance our displays with a nod to Christmas past. Let’s add a little influence reminiscent of Clement Moore’s The Night Before Christmas. Our mission at Christmas Past Sleigh Company is to take…
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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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Animatronic Figures

It was many years ago, but I can still remember our yearly Christmas journey from Northwest Indiana to downtown Chicago. Our plan was to visit the windows at the Marshall Fields department store; it was a yearly highlight! I was excited to see what amazing things were waiting for us at the ultimate Christmas destination! Inside and out, the store was a child’s fantasy of sights and sounds. Each window was part of a scene in a contiguous story. Elaborate animated characters performed on their own individual stages. There was so much to look at, so much to take in,…
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Put a mega-tree on the roof

It all started a couple of years ago when we needed to find a suitable house to help care for an aging relative. All my previous hard work building and sequencing a customized display for our old house was going down the drain. The old house had tons of shrubs and provided a natural setting for lots of lights. Not so with the new house. Not a single shrub anywhere. My creativity languished for 2011 and all I did was put a 16’ inflatable Santa on the carport roof. It was a good location where the south end of our…
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Waterproofing those connectors

Water, water, everywhere, but I can’t seem to keep it outta here! Here, being my light show, the water loves the electrical connections like I love Christmas displays, the difference being I like them turned on and bright and the water likes them shorted out and dark! How to stop the evil water infiltration? Giant sponges? No, too hard to wring out each day. Umbrellas? Nope, blocks the lights. Hmmmmmmm, who will stop the rain, do’h, that’s a line from a song! OK, so here are the standard ways to protect the lights: electrical tape and duct tape. They work,…
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Christmas car

Tim Smith takes lighting his car to an entire new level. We asked him why? “This is the 9th year I did it. Basically, it just makes everyone happier. When I take it downtown or in neighborhoods, you can see the atmosphere of the place just get lifted and I figure with the chaos that’s going on all over the place, if I can make someone forget about it for a few seconds and have them step out of reality and just smile then it is worth the time and effort put in. That is what makes it addicting. That’s…
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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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My search for the first snowman

Who made the first snowman? Who first came up with the idea of placing one snowball atop another and sticking a carrot in the top sphere? This was my quest for over six years. It would deplete my bank account, test my marriage and get me in with a lot of cool celebrities. I was at a career crossroads of sorts when I decided to tackle this project. Weary and jaded from working as a writer and illustrator in the shrinking magazine field for over 15 years, my flashier assignments were well behind me. I was looking for something that…
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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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