It's About Time!
Welcome to your November 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 November 2008 newsletter:
It's after Thanksgiving, and people are really talking about
Christmas... in-between the never-ending bad news about the
economy. The days of instant gratification and not worrying about
debt are behind us. Multiple professional Christmas designers have told
me they see society shifting back to the fundamentals of Christmas and
the holidays. I certainly agree.
Christmas
is all about memory and traditions. We all remember elaborate
Christmas displays from our childhood. A Smith family tradition is
to always drive around town and look at the Christmas light displays
both inside and out. Thank goodness PlanetChristmas community
members are out making it easy.
Many have been plotting and planning elaborate displays since last
year and it's your time to shine! You're making lifelong memories
for countless others.
If you have visions of an elaborate display for 2008 and work has
barely begun, it might be time to scale back what you have in mind for
this year. The biggest complaint I hear every year from newbies is
how they always under estimate the time required for building a great
display. Instead, consider this a learning year.
But...
I strongly believe there is no such thing as a bad Christmas display.
If you create something to share with others to celebrate this wonderful
time of year, you're doing it for all the right reasons. Don't let
me hold you back. Even a small display is better than nothing.
Get to work!
Handling Traffic
Many of us build grand Christmas displays and assume the world will beat
a path to our door to see what we've created. Have you ever
thought through what will happen if they really do? How are you going to
handle the streams of cars? What about the irritated neighbors?
Then there are the people totally oblivious to anyone around them.
I've seen it all over the years. I went from having just a few
cars driving by each night to traffic jams, fender benders and satellite
trucks broadcasting live from my house. What a zoo. Ended up
having to hire off-duty police officers to keep order... expensive and
in most cases avoidable with a little more planning.
If
you know you're going to have a big display, go ahead and plan now for
the traffic. If you haven't already talked to your neighbors, warn
them as soon as you can.
Make up a bunch of small signs to post along the front of your display
at ground level, out of the normal sightline for the lights. If
you have a website and radio station, put it on a sign. I always
put up a "Technical Specifications" sign with all the display details
for the curious. Also post the hours your display is viewable and
limit those hours based on the tolerance of your neighbors. If
your display cuts off at 10:00pm and there's a knock at your door at
10:15 begging to turn it back on, simply refer them to the signs and
whatever you do, don't turn the lights on or you'll irritate the
neighbors and people will never stop knocking at your door.
Christmas displays synchronized to music are real traffic stoppers.
If your typical show is five songs, consider scaling it back to one or
two songs on weekends with calm music and simple fading lights between
sets so the traffic has a chance to move through.
The best thing you can do is sneak through your neighbor's yard and walk
around your display as a typical viewer and watch how others watch.
You'll be amazed at what you learn and can improve upon next year.
The bottom line is you're making lifelong memories for so many others
and you want those to be grand memories!
Christmas Villages You
Control?
Got
a great submission to the PlanetChristmas Showing Off section from Sean
Pluard. He went the opposite direction from most and made his Christmas
display smaller in 2008 (as like an extravagant Christmas Village on a
table top.) At the same time Sean is letting you see it live on
the Internet AND letting you control the animated lights. Way too
cool. Check it out at
NoelCam.com.
It's on line 24x7 through the end of 2008.
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. A little known side benefit is the media mines the
PlanetChristmas website looking for stories. I constantly get
requests on specific pictures.
It's easy to submit a picture of your 2008 display. Just go to the
PlanetChristmas
Showing Off section for details.
It's back! The PlanetChristmas World Wide Christmas Decorating
Contest for 2008 is returning bigger and better than ever before.
This year there are categories for Newbies as well as LED based
displays.
Winners get appropriate prizes and a feature article in PlanetChristmas
magazine. Find more details by going to the
World Wide
Contest section of PlanetChristmas.
Lots of rumors swirling around out there. I usually ignore
them, but some just need to be shared.
Bad economy... Merchant sales are down... Take advantage
of the Christmas decoration deals because they'll be happening before
Christmas this year instead of the normal day after.
Got any juicy bits of gossip you want to share with the
PlanetChristmas community? Send a tip to
csmith@PlanetChristmas.com
Mark your PLUS2009 calendars for July 29 through August 1, 2009 in
Louisville, Kentucky. It's our gathering of people that decorate
for Christmas, whether personal or professsional.
I was recently in Louisville nailing down more details for our event.
If you had a great time at a previous PLUS, get ready to have an even
better time at this one. We're at the huge Kentucky International
Convention Center that's convenient to everything.
You'll
note PLUS2009 is now 3.5 days of nonstop activities. We start
Wednesday right after lunch and go through Saturday night and our gala
banquet.
Want an easy way to keep up with PLUS information? Go to the
new website at www.gotoPLUS.com.
It's the first place official PLUS information is shared with others. PLUS2009
registration begins January 1, 2009.
Bet you didn't know we're cookie lovers at PlanetChristmas. I'm
always searching for the next great recipe. Checkout a few at
http://www.planetchristmas.com/Cookies.htm. Here's the
latest that's sure to add a few inches to the waistline...
Were you asking "how in the world can I mix my two favorite foods into
one delicious taste treat?" Hmmmm. Maybe that was me... potato chips and
chocolate. How about a potato chip cookie drizzled with chocolate?
Perfect!
- 1 cup butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla or
vanilla paste
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 1 cup crushed potato
chips
Cream butter and sugar until
fluffy. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and flour gradually and beat until blended.
Stir in the potato chips. Drop by teaspoonful onto an un-greased
cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees in the oven for 13 to 15
minutes.
While cookies are baking, make chocolate gnash to drizzle over
them
- 8 oz. semi sweet chocolate
- 1/4 quart heavy cream
Bring cream to a boil, add chocolate and whip till smooth.
After the cookies have cooled drizzle the chocolate gnash over the tops. Makes 3 dozen incredible cookies.
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.
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.
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| Logo on clothes |
With our PlanetChristmas forums, did you know there's 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
What about LED based Christmas lights? They're bright, pure in
color and use very little electricity. The bad news is they are a
bit pricey and have unusual electrical characteristics if you have a
computerized display. Buy a few strands of LEDs this year and put
them somewhere in your display. Learn what they can and cannot do
and use your knowledge in 2009!
The PlanetChristmas radio station has been totally revamped for
Christmas 2008 and is available 24/7 to anyone with a fast Internet
connection to tap into. Find the details at
http://www.planetchristmas.com/PCRadio.htm
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.
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
