How Long Have You Been Decorating?

[evan.a]

I've been decorating static since the late 80's to early 90's.
Started lor in 2006. shows started in 2007.

My question... how long have you been decorating?

[Greg Young]

evana wrote:

I've been decorating static since the late 80's to early 90's.
Started lor in 2006. shows started in 2007.

My question... how long have you been decorating?

I started regularly decorating in 1977, and have not missed a year since.

Joined the forums originally around 2000 (pre-LOR), and have posted intermittently (as time allows) ever since.

Greg

[cenote]

Static since I was a kid, can't remember when that was...Bought our house in 98, went big the year the carson hit the internet. Saw the video on a sunday night in early December, and buy the next Saturday, I had my first LOR 16 controller. Think i had about 3000 lights that year blinking to cheesy music over a radio in the bushes.

Since than....many happier neighbors and kids, smaller savings accounts, and some how, no divorced wifey.

[Don Krasley]

I started helping my grandfather when I was 5! I'm sure I was more in the way then help but i'm 48 now! So 43 years. I have been decorating here for 22 years, and 2010 was my 4th year using LOR

[Brian Mitchell]

Bought my house in 1990 and had one string of lights and one plastic Santa and have added every year. Used that string of lights until 2006 when I put multiple colors on the house.

[Aaron Maue]

My dad bought the first bunch of lights from an ad he saw in a newspaper when I was 9. Helped him put 'em up that year and I've been doing it every year since, so that would be 26 years for me. Since 1998 on my own house. It's been static until now. 2011 will be my first year with LOR and I am pumped. Gonna be 64 channels. Somewhere around 10,000 - 12,000 lights.

Wish I still had some of those lights, just for nostalgia reasons. Old C9 strands that didn't have any fuses in 'em. Pretty heavy wire, as I recall.

[CKSedg]

I've been putting lights on the house since I was a kid. When we bought our home 33 years ago, I started decorating. About 25 years ago a vendor at work who dabbled in electronics showed me how he had built some boards and programmed a computer to flash his lights. So, I built some boards with triacs, optocouplers, resistors, etc. I used my Atari 800 and wrote a BASIC program to control the lights. There were only 4 channels, and no music, but boy did the lights flash! As I added more lights, I had to add more controllers, but there were still only the four channels. I live in northern Utah, and had people coming to see the lights from all over---including Wyoming and Idaho. It was pretty unique way back then. I remodeled my home about ten years ago and decided not to do it anymore. I had a static, boring display for a few years. Then I heard about LOR and decided it would be much more fun and easier than what I did before. 2009 was my first year. So I have grown from 4 channels to 136 channels in 2011. As you all know, it's a terribly fun addiction!

One of my favorite stories came years back. I was out fixing the lights one night and a young man walked up and asked if I was the owner of the house and the lights. I said yes, and he told me that for about four years he used to come to our neighborhood and sit in his car at the church parking lot (across the street) and drink his booze and do his drugs while he watched my lights. Then he said "I want you to know I have been sober and drug-free for nine months now. This year I am sitting at the church watching your lights to get a 'natural high.'"

[Don Krasley]

Atari 800! Thats funny! But thats a good story CKSedg!

[shfr26]

1983 static, third year with LOR.

[jeffandnicole]

Me: Growing up, I always wanted to decorate more than what my parents would allow. In my teens, I could decorate a large Christmas tree out front with some c-9 bulbs, but that was the extent of the outdoor decorating. My dad didn't want the house to be too noticible for whatever reason.

My wife: Her family did one of those big outdoor displays that people (including my family) would drive by. The entire yard was lit up with blowmolds and lights. Her picture was in the paper when she was 3 or 4 helping her dad set up the lights.

Many years later, we met at a bowling alley where I worked & she bowled. She was in high school, I was in college. Turned out we grew up only 1.5 miles away from each other. I gained a wife who already loved to decorate - she provided her knowledge of decorating. Unfortunately, her dad had sold off much of the display by that point, so we had to start from scratch.

LOR came into the picture due to the before-mentioned Carson video. I believe I was aware of it beforehand but never purchased it, visited these forums, etc. Started with 1 unit. This year I will have 10 units. I don't have the electrical knowledge and know-how that many on here have, but I still have a lot of fun with the programming and decorating! I remember the first year I started doing LOR - my wife wasn't thrilled with the idea. She just wanted all the lights on at one time. She's since grown to enjoy the music and will provide me with songs that she wants me to program...although she won't attempt the programming herself!

[wristslitter]

Started back in 2005 as a joke to my girlfriend, I made some evil wooden snowmen. Being a Nightmare before Christmas fan, I bought a airblown Santa Jack Skellington from the Disney Store. I then continued to build new props the next few years to the theme of Haunted Mansion Holiday at Disneyland. Christmas 2008 I go to Disneyworld and see Osborne Family Lights, I told my gf that I needed to do a lightshow. 2009 I use a Gemmy lightshow, it worked ok for what is, people loved it. Birthday June 2010 my Gf buys me a 16 channel LOR. I was intimidated, but I kinda roughly figured it out by Christmas. This year I plan on going to 32 channels, I already bought a bunch of LED lights on sale after christmas. My show will improve upon my flaws of 2010. I continue to better my show year after year. I am hooked.

[jimswinder]

First BIG display when I was a kid, about 10 years old...

Lived in a Cul-d-Sac and thought our street needed a HUGE tree in the middle of the Cul-d-Sac.

Went around to the 5 homes on the street (ours was #6) and collected money to buy a tree and strings of lights (the old 25 Count C9's). I think I collected around $8

Went to buy the lights, and I think back in the 60's they were like $4 each. So bought 2 strings...(plus added a 3rd string from my own "private collection LOL) then went looking for a BIG tree at the corner Christmas Tree Lot. Even back then a 10' - 15' tree was over $30. Man was I disappointed...3 strings of lights and no tree. So I went around the neighbor hood again with my sob story and collected more money for a tree...think I got about $5. Well one of the neighbors (Wally Anklam, my second Dad) said the the Becktons had some land and thought we could go there and cut down a tree...which we did..about a 20 footer!!! LOL

My three strings covered about the top 5 feet!!! So once again, hit the neighbors upo for more money for more strings. Think I collected enough for two more strings. Tlak abouit a Charlie Brown tree!! But it was the NEIGHBORHOOD tree!!! Man was I proud!!!

Two days later we got the typical wind storm thru Seattle and it blew over!!!! Breaking about 50% of the bulbs!!! LOL

(Hmmmm...it just hit me...I have a history of Mega Trees falling over!!! LOL)

Well...only one thing to do...went around the neighborhood ONCE again collecting even more money for the replacement bulbs!!! Either they liked the tree (for the two days it was lit) or they wanted to get rid of me cause I got a LOT more money!!!

The tradition continued until I was about 18 years old...

been hooked ever since...

And for me it was also the Carson video that "changed my life"...I saw it and said "I gotta do that!!"

it took me another five years after seeing it to actually get my first LOR unit...

[EARLE W. TALLEY]

40 Years static, 2 years LOR.

Earle

[PaulXmas]

Outside 2001 when we bought our house.

Outlined the house.

Guy down the street was crazy! He had a ton of light and they would turn off and on.

He used something that turned a bunch relays off and on.

Ohhhhhh nice but the power that guy must draw!

Bought a few things in the after Christmas sales and build it up.

For 2 years we had colour changing lights on the house and windows.

Then tried to use a flashy thingy from Zellers that I burnt out in a few minutes :shock:

Next year a Mr Christmas

2009 discovered LOR!

[Ron Amedee]

2009- Hung 7 ft of icicle. To shut up the wife (She goes crazy with the tree)

2010- Hung 37 ft of icicle and 200 ft blue incandecents. (Wife was pleased)

2011-Will have at least 2-CCR's, 80 channels LOR and 20,000 LED's (She should have known I get alittle carried away with everything I do!)

[jjd35]

I started decorating my first house in 1993. Each year I would add something new to the display until last year when I came across LOR and said Ive got to do that so I lite up my house with 10,000 lights and 64 channels. Ran into a neighbor last month when I was out with friends at applebees and he asked if it was a meeting for the lights next year lol.

[Arnoldc]

I started helping decorate when I was a little kid ("helped" aka caused more problems than I helped) putting lights on the tree. When I was 6 I hung one strand of lights at the front door. Then slowly progressed from there.
I stopped back in 2006, due to my dad dying, and lost all my Christmas spirit (we both loved putting stuff up!) and I went 3 years without putting up anything. I finally started back up in 2009, just a static display, 2010 I got a Mr. Christmas, and within 10 mins of the "show" running I was bored and semi disappointed, I wanted to be able to do more, add more, pick my own music. Thanks to watching some of the Holdman videos, I discovered LOR. I purchased my first 48 channels about a month ago and plan on adding more next year!

[jstorms]

When my Mom was a kid they had one strand of lights that they thought was just beautiful. I remember my Mom buying Kmart out of lights each year so lights were always a big deal in the family.

I've been doing static displays since 2000 when I had my own house in Texas. Saw the video in 2005, but it wasn't until last year that I pulled my pennies together to buy 16 channels. My wife and I decided to lose weight and we motivated ourselves with prizes. She had her girly stuff, but I put in the S2 software, 2 controllers, and extension cords. After 85 lbs I had a working show.

First year went awesome. Community loved it, and I'm working on a 96 channel show for next year.

[caniac]

We started with inflatables, then Christmas before last we stopped at Lowe's Hardware and saw the Mr. Christmas four channel doodad, like the concept but didn't like that it only half assed worked so last summer i researched "Christmas Musical Light Shows" (I am a dangerous man with a web browser). Ended up finding WOWLights, Inc., they took my phone calls, answered 25,000 questions of which most could have been considered stupid or redundant. Purchased the 32 channel starter and the rest was history.

[bobschm]

Built the house in 76. Static decorated every year. I worked my way up to being the best (as in lots of lights but not garish) house in the neighborhood. Little tykes on Halloween remarked, "Hey, this is Santa's house!" This year several new neighbors put up really nice displays. We blended in.

Get this! The wife was disappointed and said next year she wanted something spectacular. HERE WE GO!:cool:

Building two boards for 32 channels. Already sequenced four songs on my way to a 10 song, half hour show.

Boston Bob