It's About Time! 

Welcome to your August 2007 edition of the PlanetChristmas newsletter!  It is published regularly and covers relative topics for the Christmas decorating enthusiast.  For the record, there were no June or July editions because everyone was focused on PLUS2007.

Here's what you can read about in this August 2007 newsletter:

• Favorite Gadgets

• PLUS2007 Wrap-up

• Tip of the Month

• Rudolph's Rumor Run

• Your PlanetChristmas Forums Signature

• PlanetChristmas Radio

• Newsletter Suggestions

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Favorite Gadgets

Decorating for Christmas is so much fun and just think about the memories we make for others!  What viewers don't comprehend is the huge amount of effort required to build our incredible Christmas displays.  As you start getting ready to roll out the 2007 display, here are a few of my favorite gadgets that can save a lot of time.

Kill-A-Watt Meter.  This amazing tool tells you exactly how much electricity an item is consuming.  When I buy a new type of Christmas light, I immediately plug it into this device to figure out how many watts it uses.  You'll be amazed how often the manufacturers tag on the end of a string of lights is wrong.  This meter is easy to use and is helpful year round.  Plug your computer into this thing and you'll see it is consuming a few watts of electricity even when it is turned off... same for your TV set.  Don't get me started about all those little wall warts (the low voltage transformers used to charge your cell phone, power your answering machine or make your amplified speakers work) scattered all over my house and constantly consuming electricity whether I'm using them or not.  Urrrrgggggg.  Kill-A-Watt costs $20-40.  Do an Internet search for "kill-a-watt meter"

Professional Light Tester.  This is a magical device if you have a lot of incandescent mini-light strings.  Let's face it, there are just light strings that defy working no matter how many times you say "when one bulb goes out the rest stay on."  Plug the non-working string of lights into this gizmo and press the big red button.  If the string doesn't light right away, you'll hear a buzzing sound pointing you to exactly where the problem is occurring.  How does this thing work?  It shoots a stream of very high voltage but low current down the string of lights.  Many times this will fuse that special shunt in a burned out bulb allowing the rest of the lights to work.  The other times the high voltage will start arcing across a broken wire/bulb socket showing exactly where the problem is.  Because of this device I'm still using strings of minis that are 20 years old (remember when they had the skinny wire???).  This light tester is $150-$200 but think of it as a long term investment.  I've paid for mine many times over by being able to rescue strings destined for the trash.  Check the PlanetChristmas vendor page to find a place to buy this thing.

Looks like a stubby screwdriver in the picture to the right, doesn't it?  Well, that's because it is.  I've been known to keep this in my pocket at all times while working outdoors with incandescent mini-lights.  If you have a bulb acting odd, remove it and insert the blade of this screwdriver.  It will temporarily short out the socket and provide power to the rest of the lights in the string, which tells you everything else is working fine.  Do not use this trick on C-7 or C-9 strings because each socket is wired in parallel and you'll experience unplanned fireworks that will not be healthy to your power panel or your body.  How is a typical mini-light string wired?  See http://www.planetchristmas.com/Minis.htm. 

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PLUS2007 Wrap-up

Here's an excerpt from the final PLUS2007 newsletter:

Did everyone have a great time at PLUS2007?  Judging from the response sheets it was a success.  Thanks to 'Dale W' you can see some pictures of the event at http://www.mississippichristmas.com/picturesfromplus2007.html.  Other pictures can be found in our chatroom beginning at http://planetchristmas.mywowbb.com/forum31/15099.html.  I'll admit to aging about a year during the six days I was in Gatlinburg for the event but to see the smiles and meet so many new and old friends, it was great. 

Behind the scenes, your Steering Committee invaded the Gatlinburg Convention Center Tuesday so the group could get a feel of the layout.  I knew PLUS was going to be fun when people started gathering outside the main doors Wednesday afternoon 30 minutes before we opened early registration... it's like we couldn't wait to get started.  That night at the Glenstone Lodge was such fun as we started figuring out who was a PLUS person and talking Christmas.  I'll admit to not anticipating people decorating their balconies of the hotel and property management later told me they got a lot of calls questioning what was going on... but we were just being Christmas fanatics.  The one thing I couldn't figure out was if people actually slept.  I would walk through the Glenstone lobby late at night heading for bed and people would be sitting around talking Christmas.  I'm an early riser and when going back through the lobby at 7:00am I would see people still talking about Christmas... and it was August  .)

There are so many wonderful memories about our gathering.  During our opening ceremony I challenged everyone to hunt me down to tell me about your display and many of you took me up on my offer.  Such great ideas you have implemented... of which several will probably show up in a future PlanetChristmas display.  See the rest of this story at http://www.plus2007.com/NL081807.htm.

What are the details on the next PLUS?  Stay tuned!

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PlanetChristmas Tip of the Month  

Is this the year you computerize some or all of your display?  Get started now!  Synchronizing lights to music can be more addictive than playing video games and possibly more time consuming.  For every minute of your animated show, allocate 1-8 hours to program the lights, depending on how many light channels you have.  Set up and area where you can start playing with the sequencing concepts now.  Connect a string of mini-lights to each channel of your controller, pick a song and start sequencing.  Keep a clock handy and make an effort to look at it every now and then.  You'll be amazed how time flies and you forget to go to bed.

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Rudolph's Rumor Run

This is a new addition to the PlanetChristmas newsletter.  Got any juicy bits of gossip you want to share with the PlanetChristmas community?  Send a tip to csmith@PlanetChristmas.com

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Tips on your "Signature" in the PlanetChristmas Forums

Many of us have become very creative with our unique signature automatically added to the end of each post we make in the PlanetChristmas Forums (My Account/Edit Profile/Signature).  You can have pictures, links, colored text and just all kinds of cool attention grabbers... but let's be careful.  As we enter the busy Christmas season, the bigger/flashier your signature, the more irritating it becomes to others.  Let's keep it simple and refrain from blatant advertising.  My PlanetChristmas Forums signature is below as an example. 

Chuck Smith at http://www.PlanetChristmas.com
Don't forget our three PlanetChristmas rules: [color=red][b]Positive, family friendly and Christmas centric[/b][/color]

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Newsletter Suggestion? 

Have a suggestion for a main topic or want to write an article for a future PlanetChristmas newsletter?  Send me an email: csmith@planetchristmas.com  If you know someone that really should subscribe to your newsletter, send them to http://planetchristmas.com/lists/?p=subscribe

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Next time: look forward to more Christmas decorating tips. 

Chuck Smith of PlanetChristmas