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PlanetChristmas May 2008 NewsletterIt's About Time!
Welcome to your May 2008 edition of the PlanetChristmas newsletter! It is published regularly and covers relative topics for the Christmas decorating enthusiast.
Here's what you can read about in this May 2008 newsletter:
Telling a Story with your 2008 Display
Ever been to a Disney theme park? You don't necessarily realize it but almost every major attraction immerses you in a story. They're using the old Hollywood trick to get you to suspend belief. How else could anyone enjoy a Superman movie unless they really thought the man of steel could fly? The same holds true at Disney as you wait in line to get on a little roller coaster train traveling at 60 miles an hour... it's not something you do in normal life but you can't wait to finish the story after hearing and seeing glimpses of it for an hour. The same thought process holds true for great Christmas displays. How many elves and flying reindeer do you know in real life? Suspend belief and the magic of Christmas comes shining through!
Why is telling a story such a good idea? Most of us are pretty lousy at remembering raw facts and figures. Tell us a good story though and we'll never forget it. In fact, we'll probably end up telling that story to others and might even embellish it a bit. Tell a story and make a memory. That's what we do with our displays.
I like to set up my display into several scenes, just like a movie. I tell a story of the life of Santa Claus over a year. The first scene is called "Santa on Vacation" and includes him resting on the beach, water skiing and fishing. The next scene is life in the toy factory where elves are cranking out the presents. Then you shift to an all white North Pole where the reindeer are getting ready on Christmas Eve and the elves are loading the sleigh. The final scene is nothing but a simple and elegant nativity.
Telling a story really helps focus your display design. Instead of trying to be all things to all people, all the time, you can tackle the display in smaller pieces, create scenes unique to your community and lead people in a structured way to see all you have done. It's much easier for you as the designer to work on a "Santa at the beach" theme than a generic "Christmas" theme. The bottom line is to let your imagination be your only limitation, but in an orderly fashion.
If you have a computerized light display, you can draw the viewers eye to each scene in just the order you desire and save a lot of electricity by turning off the scenes not in use.
This story is part of the "How Do I..." section of the PlanetChristmas website.
__________ Rudolph's Rumor Run
Lots of rumors swirling around out there. I usually ignore them, but some just need to be shared.
Saw a most interesting wireframe recently. It wasn't anything special except it was outlined in M-5 type LEDs, there were several different colored sections and the amazing thing was there were no left-over LED's. Careful inspection showed the typical permanent mounted LEDs (those non-replaceable socket types), different LED colors in the same string based on where they were placed on the frame and little plastic "bumps" in the wiring that were a bit warm. Finally figured out the "bumps" were resistors encapsulated in plastic used to electrically make up for unusual string lengths. From a distance it was hard to tell the frame was lit with LEDs. The colors were vivid but to the trained eye, the LED cool white is just different than the incandescent clear. If what I saw really becomes a product, it will be hard to beat frames with nearly indestructible lights that use 80% less energy and last 30 times longer than our incandescent mini-lights we feel so comfortable with.
Got a sneak peek at some sort of new sequencing software coming out of Animated Lighting. Reminded me a little of the Vixen program but that doesn't matter. Looked incredible easy to use with plenty of eye candy. Keep an eye out for this one.
Got any juicy bits of gossip you want to share with the PlanetChristmas community? Send a tip to csmith@PlanetChristmas.com __________
Checked the Forums Lately? It's Really Changed!
Don't forget we also have a community calendar where your local event can be published by date. Comes in pretty darn handy if you're looking for something to do this weekend.
If you haven't found the updated PlanetChristmas forums yet, go to http://www.planetchristmas.com/talk.htm. Never forget PlanetChristmas believes strongly in protecting your privacy so personal information about your account is never sold or shared with anyone.
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Tell the World What's Happening in Your Area!
With our new PlanetChristmas forums, there's now a section where you can go down to the state level and post information about what's going on. Use this to let your community know about events and also remember to place important dates on our public calendar. Want a shortcut to the PlanetChristmas forums? http://forums.planetchristmas.com
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PLUS2009
Behind the scenes planning continues for our bi-annual gathering, an event we call PlanetChristmas Lights Up Symposium or PLUS. The Steering Committee is in place and there's plenty of talk about 2009. We're emphasizing community building, education and vendor relations. I call it the stool. All three legs are important. Drop one and you don't have a place to sit. Mark your PLUS2009 calendars now tentatively for the last weekend in July, 2009.
Want an easy way to keep up with PLUS information? Go to the new website at www.PlusForUs.com. It's the first place new PLUS information is shared with others. __________
PlanetChristmas Tip of the Month
It's time to start thinking about the 2008. Let this year be the one where you tell a story. Go to garage sales and while looking for old Christmas decorations, keep an eye out for Christmas coloring books. There's nothing like an old coloring book to tell a story and engage a child. Take it up a notch and use the same story line in your display.
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Anyone can put out a lot
of Christmas decorations to
overwhelm the casual
observer. People will
talk about it and you'll get
a line of people wanting to
see what you've created...
but you have an incredible
opportunity to tell a story,
create a lifelong memory and
really get people to talk
about what you've done for a
very long time.
We
now have sub-forums and blogging capability in our
