Good Bye Christmas 2011

[PMC]

This was the best year ever, loved the feeedback from the people the good as well as the bad. my display is on until the 8th of January, I was asked back in November to leave them on because a family has relatives coming in that weekend and they want to watch the lights.

Like many I want to go full throttle into RGB/LED and if I am going to cut down those trees or not, the wife got me a chain saw from Christmas so I think that's her hint

But, I was thinking of removing the Christmas Themed display items and do a few more sequences over the winter that would be non-holiday related. like some Rush, Styx, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and some newer stuff as well

It would keep me off the streets this winter just to play around with the lights for a few months

[George Simmons]

Well, I have a tendancy to open my mouth at the wrong time and say the unpolitic thing perhaps, but I say GO FOR IT!

DISCLAIMER: I speak for no one but myself. YMMW. I recognize that audiences, location, sequencing skills, country of origin, local attitudes, religions, ideals, and on and on and on all affect how people view synchronized to music lights. But having said that:

Last season, I had someone tell me at the candy-cane mailbox that she didn't see the connection between Pink Floyd and Christmas. My answer was that I once got a Pink Floyd album FOR Christmas which turned out to be one of my all-time favorite gifts so I'm just honoring that memory. She smiled, I smiled, and then she went back to her car, candy canes in hand... and watched for 35 minutes before driving off. (Yes, I kept peeking out the window... had to.)

And for every person who's said anything even remotely close to that, (and I think that including Sharon there have been two, maybe three people total in four seasons now) I've had literally hundreds of others (including the big city TV news co-anchor, bless her heart) say how much they enjoy all the different kinds of music I play. (My playlist has a page on my website if you want to take a look.)

The most offensive words ever have been a "damn" in the Electric Amish tune and a "hell" in Roger Waters' Wish You Were Here. I think both those appear in the Bible and I'm guessing every kid in existence has heard them, so I felt there was no mortal sin involved.

I say do what you like. (Even during your shows.) I believe the songs you like the most are also the ones that look the best in your yard.

[jldavis1969]

As my second year is now through with (all items picked and mostly put away). We had twice the traffic this year than we had last year, but there was no line to wait in. Mostly 2-3 cars at any one time when I looked out the window. So I feel pretty good that all those people came to see our show. I did get a christmas card from a person on the next block who loved the show. He delivered it in person to the door. So that would be the best present I got (last) year.



I am now looking to the future and starting the process of making the show better.

Happy New Year to ALL!!!

[jldavis1969]

As my second year is now through with (all items picked and mostly put away). We had twice the traffic this year than we had last year, but there was no line to wait in. Mostly 2-3 cars at any one time when I looked out the window. So I feel pretty good that all those people came to see our show. I did get a christmas card from a person on the next block who loved the show. He delivered it in person to the door. So that would be the best present I got (last) year.



I am now looking to the future and starting the process of making the show better.

Happy New Year to ALL!!!

[Lester Stone]

All I have to say is WOW what a blessing. The year was fantstic. Interviewed for a story in July about working on Christmas lights. (building spiral tree out of PVC) Half page article in December. and winning light display contest! But my favorite part was watching 2 girls dancing with the lights with there mother getting with it too. There were many happy faces as we watched them just be kids. That is what this hobby has allowed all of us lunatics in this LOR community to do, make kids young and old happy during this Season. Happy new year to all us lunatics:smile:

[dgrant]

That is just awesome. This past Halloween, I had people stopping to take pictures here but it was just blowups, graveyard things and so on. Turned out nice. Not sure how to apply the controllers to it but I'll see what I can dream up. I will plan on coming to see your display this next year.

[Ed Slonka Jr]

This too was the best year by far. Great weather, no glitches, only one string of LED's
blew a fuse, and lots of people come by since Thanksgiving.

Next year add RGB's and maybe DMX so should be better.:?


+1 to what George said, do what makes you happy.


Thanks to all for support and replies here in the forums!

Welcome to all the newbie's and remember....... HAVE FUN!

Happy New Year to all!!!

Ed

[plasmadrive]

OK.. I guess I will "Pile on" here since I have coffee left in my cup. ;-}

This was my first year with automation and with LOR.
I used ELLs to control it all. Had Zero issues the wireless.

I had a combination of LEDs and Mini incans. I built several props and used up 137 of 144 available channels. Did seven sequences with 137 channels used on most of them.

Problems encountered:

• I had to replace 3 strings of LEDs. 2 of which when I plugged them in afterwards to fix, worked fine. (still don't know why they went dark)
  
• One mini incan bulb go out causing 1/2 a string to go dark.
  
• 2 of 40 strobes that I used went bad. Wowlights stepped up and is replacing them since they were new.
• One 40 watt bulb went bad in a blowup Santa. Thought is was an incan but turns out I put a CFL in there two years ago and forgot. Trying to dim it for a month killed it. Doh!
• Fuses in one plug came lose from handling and knocked out all strings past that point. (easy fix once I figured it out)
  
• Some people didn't see my "tune to" radio sign. I fixed that problem by making two, raising them up and lighting them better.
  

Things that went right:

• First year with LOR and I had a few sequence wish list items that would have made sequencing easier, but for the most part, the software was easy to use.
• Kids that danced in front of the car while the radio played the music.
• LOR controllers (9) and wireless work perfectly.
• Lots of people! More then I expected!
  
• Lots of smiles and thanks you comments!
• Kids that danced in front of the car while the radio played the music.
• All props worked great and held up to any wind and cold. No rain this year in Dec to speak of.
  
• Met a lot of nice people and saw others displays.
• Kids that danced in front of the car while the radio played the music.
• Neighbors were very tolerant and encouraging.. at least to my face! ha ha
• Did I mention:Kids that danced in front of the car while the radio played the music.

Time to start on next years show.. got to figure out how and what to add before I start new sequences.

[jjd35]

This was my second year with light o rama had a few minor issues with lights and figures blowing over but nothing major. A lot of compliments I think i averaged about 15 visitors a night with the most at one time on christmas eve looked out the window and seen 7 cars all parked across the street 1 would leave someone else would pull up. Time to start thinking about next year along with a halloween show for the first time. Happy New Year to all

[testraub]

We had a very good year here. Gave out about a thousand candy canes, had a blast playing "Santa" and getting to watch all the kids, young and old get a good smile. We raised over $1100.00 for the local animal shelter and the reaction they had made me and the misses feel VERY good. Planning on 2012 already!

Tom Straub