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The Hype Is Building!


LightsWithSoul

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As I was outside just hanging a couple sets of purple Halloween lights in the trees I had several cars and families walking by tell me how much they loved my Christmas display last year and how much they're looking forward to bringing the rest of their family by this year. It's so cool to me that people took the time to stop and tell me how much they appreciated my display. It gets me amped up (pun intended) to show them something even better this year. 

Is the hype in your neighborhood building for your upcoming display yet?

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Yup. Me too. I have several people and neighbors in my neighborhood ask me as well as my coworkers at the hospital I work at. I won my city's Christmas decorating contest last year  and the Mayor said he came to my house 5 times to see the show.  So originally I wasn't going to do a Halloween show and only half a Christmas show this year due to me painting my house and getting all the "Honey do's" done.  The last couple of years I've been letting things slide a bit due to being so caught up in the prep for my shows . But..... because all the hype and expectation I've gone into full blown decorating mode.  ?As a matter of fact I'm outside now laying wire and getting props ready to test ?

Edited by BMurray
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Yep. Yesterday I was at my dermatologist and the Physician’s Assistant asked if I was doing my show. When I said I was, she was all excited and I then had to explain it to the nurse (while she was stabbing me with lidocaine).  She was also excited and looking forward to bringing her 7 year old kid to see it.

One of my neighbors saw me on the roof and asked if I adding something new (I was).

 

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Yeah, at work get questioned on whether I had started setting up or not. Last weekend after setting up stuff in the yard did our first Facebook post. The post had 23 comments, 27 shares, 338 likes and reached over 6000 people. Pressure is on.

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I've had several neighbors comment that they're glad to see me out setting things up as they really like the show.

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i just moved this year, And i have been setting up since beginning of oct. at first it wasn't that noticeable now it is and I am getting a lot cars stopping outside our cut de sac and staring, and some taking pictures.  My neighbors love it so far.  About 60%done

 

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We are going to be dark this year for various reasons (including past issues with vandalism and theft), and I'll admit I'm a bit sad because we had a young Cub Scout come selling popcorn at our house a couple weeks ago and when we opened our door he exclaimed, "You're the Christmas house!  I love your house!"

After we wrote out a check for popcorn (which we bought OF COURSE), we didn't think to tell him we'd be dark this year.  A couple hours later my husband said, "Man, that kid is going to be SUPER disappointed with the Christmas house this year."

So now I don't know what to do.  I've literally done NO PLANNING for a show this year and I have several new-to-me pieces I've acquired that I was going to program for NEXT year.  There's no way I can program them for THIS year (mainly because I would need to purchase another controller, which we can't afford right now because my husband is not working at the moment).

I told my husband that maybe we'll just do the stuff for the music show but not the inflatables and 60+ animals we usually put in the yard.

Edited by Jaynee
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16 minutes ago, Jaynee said:

We are going to be dark this year for various reasons (including past issues with vandalism and theft), and I'll admit I'm a bit sad because we had a young Cub Scout come selling popcorn at our house a couple weeks ago and when we opened our door he exclaimed, "You're the Christmas house!  I love your house!"

After we wrote out a check for popcorn (which we bought OF COURSE), we didn't think to tell him we'd be dark this year.  A couple hours later my husband said, "Man, that kid is going to be SUPER disappointed with the Christmas house this year."

So now I don't know what to do.  I've literally done NO PLANNING for a show this year and I have several new-to-me pieces I've acquired that I was going to program for NEXT year.  There's no way I can program them for THIS year (mainly because I would need to purchase another controller, which we can't afford right now because my husband is not working at the moment).

I told my husband that maybe we'll just do the stuff for the music show but not the inflatables and 60+ animals we usually put in the yard.

if it's a controller stopping you I am sure there are a few on here that will loan you one for the season.  When we first moved to Nebraska I had left mine behind but when I mentioned it on here someone loaned me two.  Put together a mini show for that year and made a trip back to NC to retrieve all of my show stuff.

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Just emailed back and forth with the husband.  He agreed we should do more than we had originally thought (just wreaths in the windows).

So it looks like I have some programming to do since we're not going to use ALL of the things we had in last year's program (his goal is to have a 2-3 hour install versus a 2-3 day install).

From the program we're taking out the stars on the house (4 channels), the two big holly trees (2 channels), and another small tree that we've been meaning to cut down for a couple years and this provides the excuse (1 channel).  We're going to combine my lattice trees, which were four channels, into two channels.  That opens up 9 channels.  I'll use 8 of them to add a bit of color to my spiral tree, which was originally only white lights.  This year it'll have white and green.  That'll be the heaviest bit of programming.

And we may only have 4-5 songs versus 12-13.  But it's something!  And since everything will be up near the motion sensors and cameras, we're less likely to experience vandalism/theft.

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On 10/25/2017 at 8:37 AM, Jaynee said:

We are going to be dark this year for various reasons (including past issues with vandalism and theft), and I'll admit I'm a bit sad because we had a young Cub Scout come selling popcorn at our house a couple weeks ago and when we opened our door he exclaimed, "You're the Christmas house!  I love your house!"

After we wrote out a check for popcorn (which we bought OF COURSE), we didn't think to tell him we'd be dark this year.  A couple hours later my husband said, "Man, that kid is going to be SUPER disappointed with the Christmas house this year."

So now I don't know what to do.  I've literally done NO PLANNING for a show this year and I have several new-to-me pieces I've acquired that I was going to program for NEXT year.  There's no way I can program them for THIS year (mainly because I would need to purchase another controller, which we can't afford right now because my husband is not working at the moment).

I told my husband that maybe we'll just do the stuff for the music show but not the inflatables and 60+ animals we usually put in the yard.

 

This happened to us when my two girls were younger.  We had an amazing show near our home in which the kids used to stick their heads out the windows and moonroof to watch the show when we were parked.  One year he simply stopped doing it and I am guessing because some grinchy neighbor complained about it.  

It truthfully was our motivation to begin building our home display each year and then finally getting the guts to jump in and go animated last year.  My oldest and I do the programming and both have been hard at work the last week adding new props to our display.  

Regarding your later posts about putting up some form of a display, good for you guys being aware of how special it is to some and I am sure it will be appreciated.

Edited by JPat
typo
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/25/2017 at 7:37 AM, Jaynee said:

We are going to be dark this year for various reasons (including past issues with vandalism and theft), and I'll admit I'm a bit sad because we had a young Cub Scout come selling popcorn at our house a couple weeks ago and when we opened our door he exclaimed, "You're the Christmas house!  I love your house!"

After we wrote out a check for popcorn (which we bought OF COURSE), we didn't think to tell him we'd be dark this year.  A couple hours later my husband said, "Man, that kid is going to be SUPER disappointed with the Christmas house this year."

So now I don't know what to do.  I've literally done NO PLANNING for a show this year and I have several new-to-me pieces I've acquired that I was going to program for NEXT year.  There's no way I can program them for THIS year (mainly because I would need to purchase another controller, which we can't afford right now because my husband is not working at the moment).

I told my husband that maybe we'll just do the stuff for the music show but not the inflatables and 60+ animals we usually put in the yard.

We too are planning on not showing this year.  After an amazing reception from our community on our showing last year, we got married this summer and I have gotten almost nothing programed for new songs, plus we put our house up forsale and our est. closing date is Dec. 4th.  We have tossed around the idea of just plugging in our big tree and see if the lights I left on all year still work. I have packed away all of my controllers, cords and props already due to showings and open houses.  As soon as the ForSale sign went up, alot of people in town asking what we are going to do for a show, and they will miss our show and who will light the tree, my dentist even said "aww the christmas tree house is forsale." I just keep telling them that if we don't  have a show at our new house I have other ideas and locations that I will try to get something going for next year.  We keep saying it is bittersweet.  We will miss the joy it brought us the last few years knowing everyone enjoyed it, but we have those memories and now its time for us to make some new ones.

 

Whatever you decide to do, or not do this year, people will understand.  Even if scaled back people will still get enjoyment from the lights, twinkling or not.

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On 10/23/2017 at 10:31 PM, LightsWithSoul said:

Is the hype in your neighborhood building for your upcoming display yet?

For us it actually is!! We were out all weekend working on lights, and trying to get the props out and ready, and everyone who drove by stopped and talked to us about it, and wanted to let us know how glad they are that we do this, and how they can't wait for the show to start this year!! Not to mention there were about 15-20 cars drive by and slow wwaaaaaaaaaaaay down to look at the progress and then slowly drive away!

Makes all the hard work worth it! :)

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same here, lots of thumbs up plus one one older gentleman that said simply "Thank you".  There was one carload of teenagers yelling obscenities but could not tell if they were pro or con!! :) 

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21 minutes ago, caniac said:

There was one carload of teenagers yelling obscenities but could not tell if they were pro or con!! :) 

Sounds like you were running around the yard in your tighty-whiteys again, eh?

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4 minutes ago, George Simmons said:

Sounds like you were running around the yard in your tighty-whiteys again, eh?

nah!! my chewbacca man thong!! :)   might have heard a wolf whistle.

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7 hours ago, caniac said:

nah!! my chewbacca man thong!! :)   might have heard a wolf whistle.

Man... Caniac it sounds like you're putting on 2 different kinds of shows in your yard LOL.

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Just now, LightsWithSoul said:

Man... Caniac it sounds like you're putting on 2 different kinds of shows in your yard LOL.

gotta entertain the natives!!

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