How early do you start for Christmas?

[TheDucks]

1 hour ago, airborneSRT said:

wow I know the shows can get up there in channels, I was looking at my 32 channels and thinking "wow that's a lot". Then you have 10 times that! I couldn't imagine where to store the stuff not to mention how long to set it up! Thank you for the tips, I imagine there will be a lot of first-time bugs to work out and I will have to start sometime in October. Yes the weather in NY is unpredictable we could have beautiful weather until January...or nasty cold wet stuff in late September. It's a hit or miss here. I didn't even notice the words of the prop names until you said something, along those lines it bothers me now, so I'll get them off so if...excuse me...when I expand, it definitely won't bother me.

Your still thinking (like I did) old, Plug into the wall strings. I will just make those blinky 😕

Then you will see the benefit of (dumb) RGB. Wait, Hang once, Orange and purple for Halloween, Then Green and Red and White for Christmas, Red,White and Blue for the 4th

Wait, If I go Smart, I can run chases around the yard/windows/roof line

Seriously down hill once you start on this path

[Richard365]

   I set up for Halloween. I put out my singing monsters and drummer, guitar player. Make things easier for me. I put my singing trees and guitar player dancing Santa in the same place as my Halloween displays. Hoping this year make it even easier. Instead of running 8 extension cords to each prop. I spent Money $$$ and bought 16 conductor cable and quick disconnection plug..  Put a plug on each display and run the one cable to each display instead of 8 extension cords. Make it easier to move displays around and clean up after season.

[TexasLights]

I am a newbie, in that i only got into doing the LOR options 2 years ago.   I was really lucky the first year and got things setup in a couple of weeks.   For regular lights, i started putting things out on Thanksgiving.   This last year, I did a lot of prep work, making sure lights worked, and arranging some new songs, but didn't start putting up the show until Thanksgiving.   Except that people knew about my lights from the year before were already driving by.   I had to do a lot of quick work, and managed to get the show up and running in about a week but it took some long hours.   Mind you, my display is spread across 2 acres so its not a 10 minute job (64 channels last year).  This year I bought some additional equipment and i have at least already started planning.  I also plan on starting on a lot of the outside work earlier this year to not have to do in quite such a rush. 

Stop by my facebook page and check it out
https://www.facebook.com/Magnolia-Musical-Christmas-317089092476816

 

 

 

[Roxxxtar]

Pick a date. Then start about two weeks before that date as things are bound to go wrong. Ex: I picked Oct 15 to start last year. Well, it rained every friggin day it seemed like. Put me way behind and I never recovered. If I had started Oct 1 I think I would have been ok

[k6ccc]

The more that you can do in advance, the better.  I did a major rebuild on my pixel tree last year.  Took FAR more time than I expected.  The result was that I did not have the pixel tree (the centerpiece of my show) up until the Monday before Thanksgiving and my Tune To pixel matrixes until four and a half hours before my opening night (the Friday after Thanksgiving).   Two new props simply never got done at all.

 

[Wayne K]

I usually start in October checking things out and getting everything working before taking stuff to the house/yard for setup. I then get all of the high house stuff done around the first of November while it is  somewhat still warm out and then work on stuff on the weekends until I then take the week before Thanksgiving off of work and get everything else put up. But the weather plays havoc with me part of the time. I have worked in the rain and even 1 time took the snow blower and cleaned the yard off so I do the yard setup from an early snow.

Edited April 21, 2019 by Wayne K

[dibblejr]

James, myself and the others started Halloween at Christmas time.

With that said my sequencing has come to a halt for at least right now and I am considering no show this year.

Only time will tell if I can put a headset back on. 

JR

[debtoews]

September this year as we will be at 40 houses!

[Mega Arch]

21 hours ago, debtoews said:

September this year as we will be at 40 houses!

I'm gonna have to make time for a road trip someday to see your neighborhood. I know the videos are great - but like the other displays - in person, I'm sure it will take your breath away...….

[k6ccc]

4 hours ago, Mega Arch said:

I'm gonna have to make time for a road trip someday to see your neighborhood. I know the videos are great - but like the other displays - in person, I'm sure it will take your breath away...….

It's worth the trip.  I saw Deb's neighborhood twice in 2017.  Did not make it up for 2018, but really want to make my northern tour this year.  That will get several in the Sacramento area, the several on the way up and back (including Deb's neighborhood)..

 

[debtoews]

On 4/25/2019 at 6:06 AM, Mega Arch said:

I'm gonna have to make time for a road trip someday to see your neighborhood. I know the videos are great - but like the other displays - in person, I'm sure it will take your breath away...….

your always welcome!

[Speedster]

Ours is a 48-channel setup. I don't consider it a monster display (especially when compared to the much bigger displays by members of this forum). but we definitely have the most lights on our block, and I'm not aware of anyone else in our small town who is also doing a synchronized light & sound show. 

I usually start around the first week of November with the intention of being done the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  Turkey Day  is our official first light-up night for the Christmas season.  Last year it took me about 48 hrs to set up everything, but that included about 24 hrs of time required to make several new props.  So if I put on the same show this year and don't make/add anything new it will take me about 24 hrs to set up all the lights & props and hook them up to the controllers.

Edited April 27, 2019 by Speedster

[Orville]

On 4/22/2019 at 8:36 AM, dibblejr said:

James, myself and the others started Halloween at Christmas time.

With that said my sequencing has come to a halt for at least right now and I am considering no show this year.

Only time will tell if I can put a headset back on. 

JR

Sorry to hear that JR.   But I am also considering no "outside" show this year.  I've lost a few things due to careless lawn maintenance personnel that I have no control over and have to pay monthly for.  And that's due to we can not opt out of the manufactured home parks lawn service and just let us take care of our own yard.   

Had to take my garden railroad down due to tracks and other things being destroyed.   Ended up taking all my RGB Lights down off the house and ramp since I was afraid they'd get whacked by some dimwit with a weed-whacker. 

Yard maintenance also took down a lot of our plants over the past 2 months, so I'm tired of replacing plants since these idiots can't tell the difference between a weed, a flower or a bush!   They have also cut wires before, so before losing my RGB lights and/or controllers to some imbecile that doesn't seem to care what they hit, cut or destroy, they all came down and will stay down as long as I live where I am.

So it looks like for 2019 my display and forward is only going to be inside my house from now until I can move out of here.   So I'm not going to put anything outside, because after the destruction of a few expensive items and plants, just don't feel comfortable putting anything out in my yard now.

If I can ever move into a regular house, my display will be back out, but since I can't get the office personnel to understand or allow me to take care of my own yard and opt out of their HORRID Lawn Service, leaves me no choice but to keep my lighting and decor inside now.

But I'll keep you in my prayers for a recovery so you can get back at it again.

 

Edited April 29, 2019 by Orville

[k6ccc]

18 minutes ago, Orville said:

I've lost a few things due to careless lawn maintenance personnel that I have no control over and have to pay monthly for. 

Many years ago I was renting a house that was on a bit of a hill.  The next door house was about 5 feet higher.  At the north edge of my yard was a hill up to the neighbors yard.  The property line was at the top of the hill.  There were PVC sprinkler pipes at the top of the hill that because of erosion, had an exposed corner.  The neighbor's gardener kept hitting it with the mower.  After a few times of fixing it, I was getting annoyed so I replaced the PVC with galvanized steel pipe.  I happened to be home next time the gardener was mowing.  Sure enough, he hit the pipe.  This time it was followed by loud screams as he had to spend 10 minutes replacing the blade before he could finish the lawn.  He never hit it again!

 

[dibblejr]

17 hours ago, Orville said:

Sorry to hear that JR.   But I am also considering no "outside" show this year.  I've lost a few things due to careless lawn maintenance personnel that I have no control over and have to pay monthly for.  And that's due to we can not opt out of the manufactured home parks lawn service and just let us take care of our own yard.   

Had to take my garden railroad down due to tracks and other things being destroyed.   Ended up taking all my RGB Lights down off the house and ramp since I was afraid they'd get whacked by some dimwit with a weed-whacker. 

Yard maintenance also took down a lot of our plants over the past 2 months, so I'm tired of replacing plants since these idiots can't tell the difference between a weed, a flower or a bush!   They have also cut wires before, so before losing my RGB lights and/or controllers to some imbecile that doesn't seem to care what they hit, cut or destroy, they all came down and will stay down as long as I live where I am.

So it looks like for 2019 my display and forward is only going to be inside my house from now until I can move out of here.   So I'm not going to put anything outside, because after the destruction of a few expensive items and plants, just don't feel comfortable putting anything out in my yard now.

If I can ever move into a regular house, my display will be back out, but since I can't get the office personnel to understand or allow me to take care of my own yard and opt out of their HORRID Lawn Service, leaves me no choice but to keep my lighting and decor inside now.

But I'll keep you in my prayers for a recovery so you can get back at it again.

 

Thank you my friend. Had to cancel my class at the Expo as well. Maybe next year, only God knows.

JR

[Orville]

On 4/28/2019 at 11:04 PM, k6ccc said:

Many years ago I was renting a house that was on a bit of a hill.  The next door house was about 5 feet higher.  At the north edge of my yard was a hill up to the neighbors yard.  The property line was at the top of the hill.  There were PVC sprinkler pipes at the top of the hill that because of erosion, had an exposed corner.  The neighbor's gardener kept hitting it with the mower.  After a few times of fixing it, I was getting annoyed so I replaced the PVC with galvanized steel pipe.  I happened to be home next time the gardener was mowing.  Sure enough, he hit the pipe.  This time it was followed by loud screams as he had to spend 10 minutes replacing the blade before he could finish the lawn.  He never hit it again!

 

If I could get away with that, I'd line my railroad and display areas with some of those galvanized steel pipes and paint them to look like the plastic white piping they use here for everything.    That'd sure teach those folks a lesson, but I know the office personnel would just come and give me a lot of grief if I did that.   If I could afford a piece of property and move my manufactured home I'd do that in a heartbeat!  

But I know if I tried putting in metal piping like that as a "guard fence" that'd just stick about 1-2 feet out of the ground, they'd just make me pull all those pipes up the first time one of the guys hit them and their equipment got damaged.   It sucks they won't sell the lots with the homes, sucks even more you can't even put a fence up in the yard to keep the free roaming neighbors dogs out of your yard that I'm ALWAYS cleaning up after when they leave their piles in my yard, and I've even had them defecate on my wooden ramp as well, sometimes right outside my front door!. 🤬

Called animal control about it, but they're worthless for anything here, didn't used to be, but now, they just don't come out and start catching these dogs that idiots let roam the neighborhood.   And the office, even though they put out flyers that dogs are supposed to be on a leash if outside and under "owner control" and that they are supposed to "clean up after their dogs", they don't, and the office folks do nothing when you make complaints about it either.

Like stated, itd oes no good to complain either, nothing ever gets done or improves.   When I first moved in they told me I could do whatever I wanted with the yard, just no fence except for those little decorative types {which got hit, bent and destroyed}, so I put in quite a lot of plants, rose bushes, some expensive white miniature Azalea bushes, lilies and other flowing plants, as well as some herb plants {Rosemary, Catnip, Basil, etc.}.  A month later, dimwit with a weed whacker cut down every one of my Azalea bushes, half of my rose bushes and most of the other flowering plants and all of the herb producing plants.   And I even had LABELS on all my plants that stated what they were so someone that didn't know a weed from a plant could see it, read it and NOT cut it down.  These were plastic stakes directly in front of the plants with plant name, info and type on it.  They cut those to pieces too!

I had also had put in a small pond basin, one of those plastic liner types and modified a free standing waterfall pond to be used with it.  Pumps got clogged up and burned out because of all the debris in the pond where they whacked all the flowers and herb plants down around it, nicked up the waterfall pretty badly too.   Replaced the pumps, but happened a 2nd time, I'd had enough and took everything down and out. 

Even had reseeded my yard because these yards aren't grass, nothing but weeds and crabgrass, had it looking really nice, but because of the way they do things, yard just turned into dirt and sand within 2 months of their doing "lawn maintenance", more like lawn destruction!    So I called it quits on having a nice pleasant and beautiful yard where I am.   But of course the office area yard is kept pristine and beautiful, and they seem to take more care with all the manufactured homes by the office area at the entrance area, but where I am is way in the back and back here they just scurry along as fast as they can and take no care in how they handle our yards.

Neighbors have all complained about it too, as a few others tried to have nice yards too, only to be ruined by their "lawn maintenance service".  Very annoying to say the least.

And this is why my display will be set up inside my home this year for my and my wifes enjoyment and for friends that may come by and visit.  It's a real shame one can't put stuff outside because of careless people that just don't watch what they're doing.

So as long as I am in this horrid park, no more outside display or improvements in my yard.  Not when I work hard on having a nice, beautiful yard and take money to do it, and then it just gets destroyed, and I never get reimbursed for the plants or decorations they destroy.🤬

 

Edited April 30, 2019 by Orville

[airborneSRT]

On 4/24/2019 at 12:01 PM, debtoews said:

September this year as we will be at 40 houses!

jeez, I would love to see that. But over here in NY it's quite a hike lol

[GriswoldStyle]

I just signed back after a few months off here on so it's that time of the year when i start my programming in May. I take a break after January. But normally i start my display November 1st as soon as I get my all month of October light show taken down. I started a 47+ hour a week job in November so this year will be an experience trying to get things up in my down time. Might have to scale back Halloween a bit.  Time will tell

[ericm]

I start mid september, I do our display on my own... kids to small and wife has no interest other then to watch it once its completed....Try to get everything on the house done before halloween, and the yard after halloween.  Try to be done mid November for testing and finish sequencing.

[Jaynee]

We set up our entire display in four days from Thanksgiving Thursday - Sunday, with lights going live that Sunday night.