Texas Christmas Lights

What a great day!

First, a quick thank you to those who made their way out to the Spring 2007 Texas Christmas Lights workshop. We had people from as far away as North Carolina for this event. With over 70+ people in the room for the first day this was by far the largest gathering in the state of Texas ever.

Our day started with the first of our two special guest, Chuck Smith, of PlanetChristmas.com. He found out last night that he was expected to speak at the event, so he took us back into the time machine and told us how he got started with Christmas lights. It all started 30+ years ago with a string of lights, and a girlfriend named Debi. After acquiring sets of newly released 35 count mini-lights,  he got an idea of what to do with them. He took them up on the roof and spelled out the word “NOEL.” He wouldn’t tell us how he mounted them to the roof but there might have been some water damage when the house was sold. Anyway, he took the lights, and using an old 45 speed record player devised a way to have the NEOL blink across the roof. So, where does Debi fit in here? Well, her dad was the intimidating type. Always a stern look on his face. One night at Christmas time Chuck took Debi and the family out to see Christmas lights. Imagine Chuck’s surprise when he learned that Debi’s dad was named LEON. Obviously, Leon loved the lights and Chuck had a new best friend.

Our next guest was Hank Stuever. He’s a feature writer for the Washington Post who is working on a new book about Christmas. He noted that all of the books to date were about Christmas 100 years ago, and there wasn’t anything out there that was current. He decided to move to a place where Christmas was more relevant, thinking that Washington DC wasn’t it. After looking around, he decided that Frisco was the place to be. It has a nice mix of family, church and retail.He gave a quick history of the evolution of lights, including the fact that President Cleveland was the first President to have lights on the tree at the White House in 1895. He also mentioned that in the early 1900’s most insurance companies wouldn’t insure a house that Christmas lights on the house, because so many people would burn the house down.

Up next were Clint Lee and Bryce Kindla with their Trolley and Train demonstrations. Clint brought up his trolley that he uses for his display. He gave out information on where you could buy parts for the trolley and some ideas on how to build one.
Bryce gave an excellent review of his old train and new train. He’s made many improvements from his first model. It’s obvious that Bryce put a lot of work into the train. If you ever have train questions, this is the person to ask.
Next it was a trip to the lobby to view Bryce’s new 20 foot tree, with a train going around the base. This is an amazing tree, and will make an excellent addition his display.

After a break, we spent time with a review of thee major players in the synchronized lighting display industry. D-Lights, a Texas company introduced some of their new products, one of them including a controller with the wireless option built onto the controller. Another workshop, and another new innovation from D-Light!

Paul Smith, the president of Animated Lighting, was up next and spent time talking about his company, and how it got started. Paul also mentioned that we should buy his products, because he has kids to put through college! (Sounds like a good reason to me.)

After that, I got up and gave my now traditional, “I didn’t plan a thing for this presentation, so let’s see what happens.” From what I’m told it wasn’t that bad. Really, one year I promise I’ll do SOMETHING useful during my allotted time.

After a wonderful lunch, we were treated to a Display Security demonstration. Brian Howell gave us some excellent pointers on what to look for when buying a camera. There is a lot to know about cameras and what you are really going to get for your money. The one thing he stressed what that no you are NOT going to get a system that’s going to capture the face of a person from far away. A camera based security system is there to deter people. If you want complete security, you will need to hire a security guard to stay outside your home overnight.

Ken Good gave a great overview of editing audio files with Audacity. Many members were interested in this display. There were many tips that he gave out, many of which you will find in your workbook. Please take some time to review them, and try these out. For those of you who use music in your displays, this will help you further enhance your display.

Jeff Trykoski then gave us an overview of his Frisco, Texas project. Many of the things he learned in this project are of great use to anyone putting on a display. The most important thing to learn is that you should write everything down. Documentation is the key to remembering how to do this again next year.

Texas Christmas Lights member Dennis Sawyer, then showed us a real life version of his now famous 10,000 watt Christmas light switch. The instructions for this can be found in your workbook, and on the TCL How-To section.

Mark and JoAnn Picklesimer gave us a demonstration of their glass blocks. This is an innovative idea that involves drilling holes into the decorative glass blocks that you find in stores. After putting lights in the middle and a bow around the box, you have a very unique decoration.

Michael Gardner spent time going over many of the ins and outs of electrical work. He reviewed parts of the NEC code that might trip up your average Joe. If you are considering electrical work and you want to review what you are being told, then feel free to contact Michael to get a second opinion.

We then broke out into 2 separate areas where Animated Lighting, D-Light and LOR classes were held.

At the end of the day many members went to Love and War in Texas, located in Grapevine. Nearly 50% of the attendees showed up for this after hours dinner. And wouldn’t you know it, a group of Texans managed to find a way to watch a Christmas movie during dinner. We also may have recruited a new member, the husband of one our waitresses. While she was excited a first, her enthusiasm faded a little bit once she really how far off the deep end we really are.

It was a great first day. See everyone tomorrow!