Season in review

[Lester Stone]

This year has been lots of fun this year. The joy of seeing all the smiling faces young and old. Children dancing while hanging out he windows, the seniors regressing and enjoying Ice cream and lights ( I live next to a Braums) cars lined all along the street. Passing out candy canes.. I had a blast. Also a half page write up in the newspaper, And winning the light show contest! ( $100 gift card from bank) This is my second year and have enjoyed all the rewards this hobby can afford. Bless all to the lunatics that enjoy this hobby

[David Rise]

I had a blast all year long, planning and setting up. The cars that came by were not as many as I thought. But looking back, this is only my first year and the word is out now. But I'm not in it for fame. I LOVE DOING IT!

Don't get me wrong, I had my share of visitors, and the smiles and compliments were many. Made it all worth it. One mini van came back a few times with their kids. They pulled up, opened the side door and sat there with their popcorn and sodas and watched the whole thing.

I'm only going to do a few new songs for next year. I'm mainly going to work on the ones that I already did to make them better.
I'm also trying to figure out what I'm going to add next year. My in-laws were throwing away a bunch of those lighted candy canes that people are using. So I grabbed them.
TO DO LIST...
Better sequences
Work on my spiral trees.
Add my inflatables to the controllers.
Candy Cane circle
Layout another 4k lights

[D-Alien]

This year is my 1st year and currently i only have static (as in my profile Pic)

Since lighting up we have had plenty of people drive by and stopping to have a look, we have also had people walking up with their children to see what we have done (i know this because i have CCTV so i can see what is going on out there whilst this lot is running)

Yesterday (Christmas Day) we had a lovely card through the door from one family that happens to own 2 houses down here thanking us for brightening up the street and putting some Chrismas spirit into the area - this made my day

i'm now planning my first LOR Purchase and deciding what i can fabricate for Halloween and Christmas 2012

[scubado]

This is my to do list for this year:
Adding red and green to minis
Adding RGB ribbon to windows and gutter line
Rebuilding one flowerbed, needs to be taller and a little bigger
Adding strobes
Making five Danbursts plus another item in mind
Going from 5 to seven segments on my poles
Adding three 7 segment arches
Need a minimum 4 controllers this year
A part time job to finance this expansion.

On the wish list:
Really like Don Gillespie's Rudolph
Three additional controllers

Attached files

[jcather]

second year with lor used mostly lor sequences and 32 channels last year. first year I programed all my songs at 120 channels now and I see flaws everywhere. lots of cars and everyone likes the lights. Am I alone in seeing the problems with my display or does everyone notice the errors in theirs? So the plan for next year more lights, a few more songs maybe not controllers but lots of adjustments and fix what I have

[Guest guest]

jcather wrote:

second year with lor used mostly lor sequences and 32 channels last year. first year I programed all my songs at 120 channels now and I see flaws everywhere. lots of cars and everyone likes the lights. Am I alone in seeing the problems with my display or does everyone notice the errors in theirs? So the plan for next year more lights, a few more songs maybe not controllers but lots of adjustments and fix what I have

To answer your question that I bolded in your quote above: I'd say most of us here that do these displays are our own worst critic.:shock:

The average viewer won't even notice these imperfections that we tend to see in our displays, all they see are pretty colored lights dancing to music, and even then, some viewers don't even realize the lights are set to a musical score!

[CKSedg]

Some of my sequences are three years old, and I am still tweeking them to make them better. Are we ever satisfied?

I want to make my mega tree into a spiral tree next year. Also a Marty Fan and some RGB floods on my trees.

There's always something.

This year I have had more compliments than ever before. Many people have told me they have come several times---bringing different people each time.

I have only one regret for this year---that I didn't start sequencing earlier!

[Lester Stone]

I too see the flaws in the sequenses. But we tweek until we are happy. I did two 10 ft spiral trees, loved the effect and going bigger next year. I plan on putting a 10 ft spiral tree inside the mega tree this next year. And also having a 15 ft weber tree too. hence more tweeking the sequences. My wife says we need to change little things in the show every year so the viewers dont watch the same thing over from last year. This hobby never ends. I had a newspaper interview this past july while I was making a spiral tree. Happy new year to all us Lunatics

[Guest Don Gillespie]

Going to try to duplicate a lot of my elements, (I live on a corner lot) that way people can see the display from both sides, need to build 6 fire sticks, two candy cane pin wheels, 24 mini trees RGBW, 3 seven sleeve arches, 5 RW spiral trees, and a new Merry Christmas sign. I am flaterted that scubado likes my Rudolph, it really was a big hit with all the kids. anchoring him was a major job, I had him tied off of the big tree, with two guide wires down to the ground attached to 2 foot anchors.

[testraub]

It's been a very good season here. Have handed out well over 800 candy canes and collected over $900.00 for our charity. Added several new songs this year thanks to the Superstar instant sequencer (will be tweaking them after the show ends and before next years begins). Hoping the Wife gives me a bit of a budget tweak for a CCR or two, some more LEDs and one or two more controllers.

Oh, BTW did have one gentleman come by to say thank you with a bag of Pistachios and a 6 pack of Sam Adams Winter Lager

Tom Straub

[scubado]

testraub wrote:

It's been a very good season here. Have handed out well over 800 candy canes and collected over $900.00 for our charity. Added several new songs this year thanks to the Superstar instant sequencer (will be tweaking them after the show ends and before next years begins). Hoping the Wife gives me a bit of a budget tweak for a CCR or two, some more LEDs and one or two more controllers.

Oh, BTW did have one gentleman come by to say thank you with a bag of Pistachios and a 6 pack of Sam Adams Winter Lager

Tom Straub

Sounds like a gound time to sit down and enjoy the last show for the season! Cheers!

[caniac]

Everyone loved my show but I have a list of almost a dozen things I want to change plus add 1-2 controllers. Not gonna start thinking about it until January 2nd.

[George Simmons]

For us, it's been a season like none other. A perfect storm, so to speak. We've had record-breaking warm weather, coupled with an incredible amount of publicity from one of the Minneapolis TV stations that has combined to produce huge crowds every night since last Tuesday. Our food shelf donations have gone through the roof and we still have 5 nights left. No issues with fender-benders, no property damage or vandalism, no injuries, and only one police call (that I made myself) during the season so far.

Sharon and I have had the opportunity to visit with hundreds of people - something the weather usually doesn't allow. Some of the stories we heard warmed our hearts, some brought tears to our eyes, others made us laugh our asses off. (Sharon loved that part and was disappointed that I wasn't able to laugh my BELLY off.)

People dancing in the street almost every night. We've handed out over 2600 candy canes and over 1200 information sheets, and counting... Website is averaging 300+ hits a day. It's been a blast!

Only 332 days until we start it again!

[Surfing4Dough]

Orville wrote:

jcather wrote:

second year with lor used mostly lor sequences and 32 channels last year. first year I programed all my songs at 120 channels now and I see flaws everywhere. lots of cars and everyone likes the lights. Am I alone in seeing the problems with my display or does everyone notice the errors in theirs? So the plan for next year more lights, a few more songs maybe not controllers but lots of adjustments and fix what I have

To answer your question that I bolded in your quote above: I'd say most of us here that do these displays are our own worst critic.:shock:

The average viewer won't even notice these imperfections that we tend to see in our displays, all they see are pretty colored lights dancing to music, and even then, some viewers don't even realize the lights are set to a musical score!

Heck, some of the displays I see I can't even tell that they are synched with a musical score!