It's About Time!

Welcome to your March/April 2009 edition of the PlanetChristmas newsletter! It is published regularly and covers relevant topics for the Christmas decorating professional and enthusiast.

Here's what you can read about in this March/April 2009 newsletter:

• Getting Easier to Decorate?
• LEDs
• PlanetChristmas Magazine
• PLUS2009 our Annual Christmas Expo!
• Do you Twitter? We now do!
• Pretty Good Deal on Ropelight
• Tip of the Month
• PlanetChristmas Radio!
• Registering for the PlanetChristmas Newsletter
• And finally...

Is it Getting Easier to Decorate???

Kinda...

I've been involved with elaborate displays for decades and I can't recall a year when I spent less time setting things up than I did the one before. What's up with that?

I keep preaching that all this fancy decorating stuff needs to be easy enough for my mother to use. 99% of the decorators don't have thousands of lights and unlimited setup time but 100% of the decorators do want a Christmas display they can be proud of.

Hmmmmmm. "Simple to set up. Easy to be proud of." Poor grammar but very descriptive.

I was lucky enough to be a newly minted engineer at the same time as personal computers were being introduced. I remember those good old days of Altair's, PET's and Trash-80's. My wife still has memories of when I took her to an Apple club meeting and a guy was showing how he had connected an IBM Selectric typewriter to his computer as a printer. There were more than a few horn-rimmed glasses and pocket protectors in that room. I thought I was in heaven. Marla thought the other extreme. Back then personal computers were complex beasts. 30+ years later they're easy to set up... even my mother can do it... but we can only hope there's not a problem else say hello to your local computer nerd. Let's just say computers still have a way to go. Simple to set up. Too easy to get frustrated.

I am starting to see a simplification trend with elaborate Christmas decorations, though. On the light animation side the famous "Mr. Christmas" light/music sequencer has actually been a big step in the right direction. Unfortunately, these devices are power limited and not expandable. But, if you think about it, by using LEDs you get around the power issue and having any animated light channels is better than having none. Now some new or enhanced products are starting to enter the picture. Checkout Music 'N Motion and the latest version of Mr. Christmas. Interesting. Simple to set up. Easy to be proud of.

Maybe the real challenges are the decorations themselves. If you want something easy, the Animated Lighting Just Add Power products are pretty darn simple to set up. I got a sneak peek at a 3-D snowman family they're working on. Cool! Winterland has some amazing icicles, each made up of about 100 clear mini-LEDs that look like they're dripping or falling... each is independent and doesn't need a computer... a few dozen of these in a tree and you're guaranteed to stop traffic. Simple to set up. Easy to be proud of. You'll be seeing a lot of these products at PLUS2009 (I know... a shameless plug.)

What about indoor decorations? There are a lot of family traditions involved with decorating for Christmas so I'll admit this might be a place not to take too many shortcuts. But... putting miniature lights everywhere might be getting easier because of battery powered LEDs. Watch for strings with built in timers and electric eyes that will last an entire season on a few AA batteries. No more ugly extension cords across the table top.

So Christmas decorations are moving in the right direction. You can look at the trend in two ways. The more time you save putting out the decorations means the more time you have with your family. I'm betting many of us are saying the more time we save putting out some decorations means we have time to put out even more!

Know of other other new products that will speed decorating. Let me know! Remember: Simple to set up. Easy to be proud of.

LEDs

There's good and bad news on the LED front.

I'm an early adopter of lighting technology around the house. I remember buying the fist generation of florescent lights that would replace standard 60 watt light bulbs way back in the 80's. They were expensive and took several minutes to come to full brightness. Today the little curly CFL (compact fluorescent lights) are all over my house. The only incandescents left are in a fancy chandelier above the dining room table we never use. I'm not sure the CFLs really last that much longer than the old incandescents, but I do like the fact they only use about 25% of the energy.

Last year Wal-Mart started selling LED based replacements for incandescents around the house. They range anywhere from $6-20/bulb and claim a 30,000 hour life span compared to 2,000 hours for most incandescents. They don't dim but they're good at task lighting. I've bought several hundred dollars worth of these things lured by the 90% energy savings and the long life span. The good news is in the right conditions you can get a lot of light produced by very little energy. The bad news is these lights really appear to have a shorter lifespan than incandescents. I've taken a few of the "expired" ones apart. The LEDs are still fine but the support circuitry to convert high voltage AC to low voltage DC is fried. Pretty obvious the manufacturers are taking a few too many shortcuts. Bottom line, wait awhile for LEDs to replace your typical light bulb in the home.

What about LEDs and Christmas lights? Now that makes a lot of sense. Since most displays are on about 30 days a year, the real-world lifespan of LEDs is not an issue. Chances are your wires and sockets will wear out before the LED bulbs stop working.

LED based Christmas lights are also morphing into new sizes to really stir the imagination. In the picture to the right I'm not real sure what the red bulb is called from LEDGenlighting.com, but it fits in a standard C7 socket, has 10 internal LEDs, is really bright and consumes a little over one watt compared to it's stubby five watt incandescent cousin next to it. The four watt difference doesn't sound like much until you need hundreds or thousands of them.

Are LEDs worth the investment? In the retrofit world, a C7 incandescent is about 15 cents (USD) and draws five watts of power. It dims, has a familiar look and everyone is quite comfortable with them since they've been around for so long. LED equivalents that can also dim seem to be in the $1+ range but consume only about 1 watt of power and are nearly indestructible because of the plastic-like lenses.

It boils down to deciding if LEDs are worth paying 6-7 times more than the tried-and-true incandescents.

The biggest LED justification comes from power consumption. Your electric bill will be dramatically less but what most people don't factor in is the electrical power distribution required in the incandescent world. Extension cords get expensive in a hurry, especially the high amperage ones. If you have a huge display, you're lucky if your power source has 200 amp service and most electric companies don't entertain larger feeds just for Christmas. Really big venues have to rent generators that then need to be filled with fuel every evening. Then there's the issue of theft. Lots of copper can attract the bad guys looking to make a quick buck by stealing your wire.

If you take advantage of computer animation, with LEDs you can use less expensive switching modules because less current is involved. Or you can put 5-10 times more LEDs on the same circuits you had used for incandescents.

Then there's LED durability. Wish I had a penny for every light bulb I've broken over the years. Ever heard of people breaking their Christmas LEDs? Most you can run over with a truck and they keep working. This becomes very important during setup and teardown when there is the most stress on the display.

What would I do? If you can afford LED based Christmas lights, buy them so you're green for the planet. You'll also be pleased with the LED pure colors that don't fade from season to season. You should also experiment with the new retrofit bulbs showing up to give some different effects to your display. Here's another shameless PLUS2009 plug: all LEDs are not created equal. The vendors at PLUS2009 will show you what products to avoid and save you money in the long run.

PlanetChristmas Magazine is Almost Real!

I've been talking about PlanetChristmas Magazine for awhile. The good news is PlanetChristmas Magazine is about to debut. Advertising is already sold, and the graphic design is all-but-done. The first edition will be the latest generation electronic magazine due to hit your email box any day now. No trees are being sacrificed for your reading enjoyment.

How can you make sure you receive "PlanetChristmas Magazine, For the Serious Decorator" ? Be sure to register for the publication now.

PLUS2009 Our Annual Christmas Expo in July

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. Doesn't matter if you're a professional or simple enthusiast, you're going to learn from the best.

PLUS2009 is now 3.5 days of nonstop activities. We start Wednesday afternoon and go through Saturday night with our gala banquet. We even have activities to keep the kids busy.

Our vendor exhibition hall is three times bigger than what we had in the past. Think of a giant room 226 feet long, 130 feet wide (that's a little more than 29,000 square feet) with a 31 foot ceiling. Now imagine it full of vendors selling Christmas decorations. I'm thinking heaven. Light-O-Rama will have a very impressive booth to wow us and BuyInflatables will be creating their own Winter Wonderland. That's just a couple of dozens of vendors that will be exhibiting.

70% of the vendor exhibition space is already committed. There's still some booth space left if you want to show off your products to a most receptive crowd. Find out more on our PLUS Exhibitor webpage.

Want an easy way to keep up with PLUS information? Go to the website at PlanetChristmas PLUS or just remember www.gotoPLUS.com. It's the first place official PLUS information is shared with others. PLUS2009 registration is now open with early bird specials.

PlanetChristmas Twitters!

Into Twitter? What is a Twitter?

Twitter is an application sweeping the Internet that lets people post short messages about what's happening. It went mainstream when Oprah started using it. PlanetChristmas tweets on Twitter, at least of about a week ago. Come join us at http://twitter.com/PlanetChristmas

Still Looking for some Incandescent Ropelight?

Through a strange twist of events I'm still the keeper of a couple dozen rolls of 3/8" 120VAC, incandescent ropelight. 150 feet on a roll and each in a sealed, factory fresh carton. Blue, green, pink, purple and red colors are left. Apparently this ropelight was manufactured in late 2007 and for whatever reason has been sitting in the corner of a warehouse. I hate to see any potential type of Christmas light sit idle so I've arranged to sell this stuff for $63/roll plus shipping. PlanetChristmas gets a few bucks a roll and the world will be a little brighter this holiday season. Seems like a pretty good deal to me... especially since I've already bought quite a few of the rolls... but even I have my limits. Interested? I've setup a way to order this ropelight in the PlanetChristmas store. Good luck!

PlanetChristmas Tip of the Month

It's Spring and many of us are working outside. Think back to your 2008 Christmas display. Did you have wires across sidewalks/driveways or scattered around so people could trip over them? Consider burying some conduit at strategic locations while the weather is nice. Come display setup time, snake your wires through the conduit, save time and keep your viewers safe.

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 iContact to handle the PlanetChristmas email distribution and make sure we comply with all government rules and regulations. At the bottom of all our emails you have the option to remove your address from any future emailings by simply clicking a link. For the record, PlanetChristmas values your privacy and does not share your email address with anyone.

And finally...

Don't limit that Christmas feeling to December. Help people every month of the year. You'll make a positive difference in the lives of others while at the same time making yourself feel pretty darn good.

Next time: look forward to more Christmas decorating tips.

Chuck Smith of PlanetChristmas