It's About Time!

Welcome to your mid-December 2008 edition of the PlanetChristmas newsletter! It is published regularly and covers relative topics for the Christmas decorating professional and enthusiast.

Here's what you can read about in this mid-December 2008 newsletter:

• Time to Bask in the Glow
• Showing Off
• World Wide Decorating Contest
• A Couple of Interesting Products
• Want to be a Good Santa?
• PLUS2009 Update
• PlanetChristmas Shameless Commerce
• Tip of the Month
• PlanetChristmas Links
• PlanetChristmas Radio!
• Registering for the PlanetChristmas Newsletter
• And finally...

Time to Bask in the Christmas Glow!

I got tired of being depressed because of all the economic bad news and knowing there was nothing I could do about it... so I stopped watching TV, only read the Life section of the newspaper and locked in a Christmas music station on the car radio. Much better!

Christmas truly is a wonderful time of year. If you have put up a Christmas display, whether inside or out, be proud of what you've done. You're making lifelong memories for so many others... especially at a time when good news seems hard to come by.

Showing Off for PlanetChristmas

PlanetChristmas has a long tradition of publishing photos of Christmas displays. It's your chance to show off while at the same time getting ideas from others.

It's easy to see pictures or submit one of your 2008 display. Just go to the PlanetChristmas Showing Off section for details.

Want to see a really over-the-top outdoor Christmas display? Kenny Irwin in Palm Springs spends 2,000 hours building a display with 7,000,000 (that's seven MILLION) lights consuming 6,400 amps of power. To see a few movies and pictures of this display, do an Internet search on RoboChristmas or start at his MySpace page and scroll towards the bottom.

World Wide Decorating Contest

The PlanetChristmas World Wide Christmas Decorating Contest is now accepting entries. This year there are categories for Newbies as well as LED based displays. Winners get prizes and a feature article in PlanetChristmas magazine. Find more details by going to the World Wide Contest section of PlanetChristmas.

A Couple of Interesting Products

I've been doing this Christmas decorating thing for decades so new products promising to change the world don't make much of an impression. Christmas is all about traditions and change is slow. I have stumbled on to a couple of products that I think have potential.

Santa's Symphonies. This is nothing more than a DVD of Santa directing Christmas music. Used it at a Christmas open house recently. Had it running on a TV in the den as background music. It almost ruined the party. Everybody gathered around the TV and just stared with smiles on all their faces. I started thinking about incorporating the video into a computerized display. What could be better than having Santa directing the music and all the lights dancing in perfect sequence? Check it out at http://www.santasymphonies.com/

The iTree. Let me see... we have the iPod, iTunes and iPhone. An iTree makes sense. This is a product by a new company trying to really simplify Christmas displays. What's slick is how you can plug in a simple SD memory card and the lights dance while music is transmitted to an FM radio. This might sound pretty basic to many of us, but iTree is an all-in-one package and easy enough for my mother to use. Check it out at http://www.musicalchristmastree.com/

Want to be a Good Santa?

Santa Claus is pretty darn busy this time of year getting ready for his Christmas Eve marathon. Luckily, he has a lot of elves all around the world talking to kids and finding out what they want for Christmas. It's not an easy job and it really needs to be done right to make those lifelong memories we keep talking about. Checkout the Santa Tips on PlanetChristmas at http://www.planetchristmas.com/SantaTips.htm

PLUS2009

Got a sneak peek at the PLUS2009 website to be revealed in a few weeks. All I can say is WOW! This PLUS will be grander than anything in the past. Counted over 40 different class descriptions in the course catalog... and that's just for the enthusiast. There's a totally separate section for the professionals in the Christmas business. Then there's the huge exhibition hall for the vendors. You're going to be impressed.

Go ahead and mark your PLUS2009 calendars for July 29 through August 1, 2009 in Louisville at the Kentucky International Convention Center. It's our gathering of people that decorate for Christmas.

PLUS2009 is now 3.5 days of nonstop activities. We start Wednesday afternoon and go through Saturday night with our gala banquet.

Want an easy way to keep up with PLUS information? Go to the website at www.gotoPLUS.com. It's the first place official PLUS information is shared with others. PLUS2009 registration begins January 1, 2009.

What in the World is PlanetChristmas Links???

We've added a feature to the PlanetChristmas forums called PlanetChristmas Links. Submit your favorite websites for a variety of categories and they will be put in the forums database for other people to easily find. Check it out by going to the forums and look along the top navigation bar for "PlanetChristmas Links" or just goto http://forums.planetchristmas.com/links. One note though... you must be registered in the forums before you can add to PlanetChristmas Links.

Never forget PlanetChristmas believes strongly in protecting your privacy so personal information about your account is never sold or shared with anyone.

PlanetChristmas Shameless Promotion

A brand new batch of exclusive PlanetChristmas shirts and jackets are now in stock. See all the details at the PlanetChristmas Store. Money collected from these sales goes toward PlanetChristmas and PLUS.

Logo on clothes

PlanetChristmas Tip of the Month

The economy might be sputtering but the stores are overstocked with Christmas decorations. Some are running 50% off sales and it's not even the middle of December. Keep your eyes open for the great deals and buy in preparation for 2009. You'll be stimulating the economy and beating everyone else waiting until the day after Christmas to buy cheap decorations.

PlanetChristmas Radio is on the Internet!

The PlanetChristmas radio station is available 24/7/365 to anyone with a fast Internet connection to tap into. Find the details at http://www.planetchristmas.com/PCRadio.htm

Registering for the PlanetChristmas Newsletter

I'm working with a company called Constant Contact to handle the PlanetChristmas email distribution. There's a new way to register for the newsletter that complies with all government rules and regulations. If you want to remove your name from the list, go to http://www.planetchristmas.com/Newsletters.htm and enter your email address. You'll be given an option to "opt-out" of future mailings. Likewise you'll also be able to remove your address from any future emailings by simply clicking a link at the bottom of the PlanetChristmas emails you receive in the future. For the record, PlanetChristmas values your privacy and does not share your email address with anyone.

And finally...

If ever there's a time to have a great Christmas display, this is the year. Economic times are tough and people want to believe things are getting better. Christmas is the perfect time of year to bring people together and your decorations are just what the doctored ordered!

Next time: look forward to more Christmas decorating tips.

Chuck Smith of PlanetChristmas