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    We’ve made it too complicated!

    Remember chaser strings from long ago?  Wrap one of those around your Christmas tree and suddenly it had personality.  The string had a controller at the end about the size…

    PlanetChristmas is back in 2023!

    Here’s a short video (just over a minute) that shows the highlights of PlanetChristmas 2023. The last major light display at the PlanetChristmas world headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee was way…

    A Better/Cheaper RGB Pixel Matrix Solution?

    I’ve been thinking about adding some sort of pixel matrix to my Christmas display so I could do more messages, graphics and video.  A P10 RGB panel display or pixel…

    Thinking about RGB pixels?

    Back in the old days you would plug in a string of Christmas lights and they would just turn on.  Easy. Technology started getting involved about a decade ago. Think…

    Make your own wireframe for the yard

    Ready to create your own wireframes to continue the theme you have evolving in your Christmas display?  You can always go to a local welding shop but it gets expensive…

    How to fix a blow mold?

    Does your Christmas blow mold need some tender-loving care?  John Yanik created an excellent video to guide you through the process.  Check it out! Standby while we load this from…

    How do they make Christmas lights?

    So, how does the factory make a string of Christmas Lights?  It really helps to have a specialized machine and a lot of automation.  This YouTube video is a bit…

    Holiday Lights at Cheekwood Trains 2022

    What happens when you mix a giant model trains layout with Christmas lights dancing to the music?  You end up with Holiday Lights down at the TRAINS! display at Cheekwood…

    2022 Top 10 Christmas tunes list

    At PlanetChristmas we get to see a lot of Christmas displays. We also talk to music producers, programmers and radio DJs about what they think will be hot come Christmas…

    Be a good Santa

    I had the pleasure of attending the “Celebrate Santa” convention back in March of this year. There were about 400 portly gentlemen attending to trade secrets on how to be…

    The Forums are back!

    It was 1997 when the Internet was relatively new and the PlanetChristmas.com domain had just been granted. Back then you filled out a paper form, mailed it in and waited…

    TSO keeps going and going and going

    Trans-Siberian Orchestra reveals 2022 holiday tour dates and answers your burning questions by Melissa Ruggieri of USA TODAY Rare is the juggernaut as potent as Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The musical locomotive…

    Really worth reading...

    Some of our favorite articles:

      Over The Top Display

      PlanetChristmas started it all with the original worldwide decorating contest back when we were all newbies. Every year more people get excited about decorating for Christmas and Franklin Flair in…

      Recording your own music

      It started with Ryan Lissner of Ryan’s Christmas Lights (www.RyansChristmasLights.com) in Salisbury East, Adelaide, South Australia looking for some fresh music for his down-under Christmas display. Off-the-shelf music wasn’t an…

      Top 10 ideas

      Whether you’re a newbie or an experienced decorator, it’s a lot of work to get geared up to start the display setup process. The purpose of this article is to…

      The Christmas Ranch

      I picked up the phone and it was Dr. Mike Fuchs, the owner of The Christmas Ranch northeast of Cincinnati. I had heard about this place for years and all…

      Music Licensing

      Let’s chat about music for a moment. Music and Christmas go hand-in-hand just about as much as eggnog and rum go in mug-and-glass. A growing number of Christmas decorators (both…

      Pixel ribbons

      We were sitting around the conference table when Chuck (as in The Mr. Smith) said we’re building pixel trees for the next edition of the magazine. What’s a pixel tree?…

      Made in the USA?

      That’s a question that we hear frequently and truthfully – though we’ll admit that we may get a bit tired of repeatedly answering that question – we’re not really tired…

      Talking to the pixels

      OMG This has geekfest written all over it. The PlanetChristmas Magazine staff was told to build a pixel tree. As the whiteboard filled up with things to figure out, one…

      Re-PLUS in Louisville

      It started out a simple enough idea back in late May. Our normal bi-annual gathering of serious Christmas decorators was not meant to be in this challenging economy. Instead, the…

      The Forums are back!

      It was 1997 when the Internet was relatively new and the PlanetChristmas.com domain had just been granted. Back then you filled out a paper form, mailed it in and waited…

      Then there are the rumors...

        The rumor mill grinds on

        When Santa isn’t looking we sneak off to the elf lounge and surf the Internet so we can keep up…

        The rumor mill

        I dragged my wife to the last performance of the Trans Siberian Orchestra 2009 concert tour. Jiminy Christmas! I’ve never…

        The rumor mill ends another year

        What’s the big decorating trend this year? I really hope it’s not those dress manikins shaped like Christmas trees. Creepy.…

        The Rumor Mill has found more… rumors.

        Santa gave all the elves the afternoon off in early November so I wandered down to the well heated North…

        The Rumor Mill is working overtime

        The big man in red gave us a night off. We aimed the satellite dish toward Europe and the TV…

        The rumor mill

        Ahhhhh. The sound of wedding bells were recently heard in the Christmas decorating world. Our very own Melissa at Christmas…

        Rumor mill ruminations

        What an interesting summer with the war of the Christmas shows, each on the same weekend of July in Conroe,…

        So many LED based Christmas lights

        I’m not worried. Well, maybe a little. It’s been the oddest thing. Until this year we’ve been quite self-sufficient at…

        The Grinch again

        Mrs. Grinch conned me into watching “Invasion of the Christmas Lights” on some cable channel last weekend. What is wrong…

        The Rumor Mill keeps grinding it out

        Santa gave us Labor Day off with one little caveat. We had to promise to return the next day ready…

        The Rumor Mill

        LEDs Light Emitting Diodes. Let me get this straight. These things are suppose to save the world. They last forever,…

        Rumor mill rumblings

        The workshop has been buzzing about all that recent presidential excitement in the USA. We’ve never had an election here…

        Where are the forums?

        The PlanetChristmas Forums are on an extended sabbatical. 

        If you want to engage with the decorating community, head on over to our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/planetchristmas

        If you really want to see the PlanetChristmas Forums come back on-line, send an email to Chuck (chuck at planetchristmas.com)

        No matter what, remember our three rules.  We are:

        1. Positive
        2. Family Friendly
        3. Christmas-centric
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