We’ve made it too complicated!
Now you have to be a computer nerd to decorate?
Remember chaser strings from long ago? Wrap one of those around your Christmas tree and suddenly it had personality. The string had a controller at the end about the size of a matchbox. Press a button to pick a pattern and you were done programming the computer.
Drive around now and some of the over-the-top Christmas displays with thousands of pixels and dozens of color changing props make the old chaser strings look like they were from the stone age. Lots of WOW but at what cost?
Today’s flashy Christmas displays require you to be a computer nerd with a background in electrical engineering. Just getting your head wrapped around some of the concepts will take some major studying and hours of watching YouTube videos by people with good talking skills but marginal teaching skills. Then there’s the cost of all the hardware needed just to control the pixels before you even buy the pixels.
Have we managed to complicate our hobby so much that it’s preventing others from getting involved? I’m thinking potential decorating newbies are so intimidated by the jargon and complexity of doing even the simplest task that they give up.
What’s the solution?
If you really want to have an animated Christmas light display celebrating the season you shouldn’t have to sacrifice so much time and energy just to learn the basics. There’s got to be a better way.
Long ago a company called Animated Lighting created a product called “Christmas In A Box.” It included a pre-programmed computer, light controller, lights and instructions. Hang the lights on your house, connect them to the light controller, hook the controller to the pre-programmed computer, turn up the speakers, apply power and be dazzled by lights dancing to the music. It was a bit of work but no engineering degree or specialized training was required. They were on to something. Think Christmas lights dancing to the music for ordinary people.
Having a light show to celebrate the season could be like ordering a new car. Today I can go to almost any major automotive website, say I want a red SUV with four wheel drive, satellite radio, sunroof and brown leather seats. I’ll see a price, order it and a few weeks later it appears at the dealer nearest me ready to drive home. I don’t need to know how the engine works, if the sunroof is waterproof or how thick the leather is to make the seats. Even better is next year I can decide to add floormats and it’s easy as going back to the website.
Why can’t ordering and expanding a Christmas light display be like buying a car online? I want to go to a website, specify I like classic Christmas music, 12 snowflakes, 8 minitrees and a megatree. It all shows up at more door in a week ready to be interconnected and turned on. Next year I can add singing faces and all I need to do is plug them into what I already purchased.
Sure sounds easy to me.
