RedNeckChristmas

Good luck Joey, You got my vote. I have the disqualified entry from Cumming!!

We got the letter.... What a crock. We used HOCS in our vid with explicit written permission from Judy and they send us the Disqualified letter in the last 15 minutes of the day yesterday. Vote for Joey Felix he made it in with a static picture.

I'm still here... Sequencing is done, welding is done, voice overs are done (Demented Elf). That's about all that's done. We start hanging the lights Oct 28 weekend this year. The 45' lift is scheduled for Nov 4th weekend. Many more days of work to get all the little details taken care of. Meeting with the Board of Directors of Family Haven (our charity) next week. Homeowners Association meeting Nov 3, Why yes fellow neighbors we will be plugging up the streets with thousands of cars again this year That pretty much covers it. Merry Christmas everyone!!

Welcome to the madness. You'll get a small percentage that will drive an hour or more to see the show but nothing huge IMHO. We get 90% of our visitors from a 20 mile radius. Of course there will always be that one family that drives from 3 states away to see it too. Just be prepared to help people find there way down your street, especially the 3 days leading up to Christmas. During the week before Christmas we have 3-4 people directing traffic. This year we will be bringing off duty Sheriff Deputies too and maybe CERT volunteers. Again, welcome to PC and this addiction we all share. Larry

Hey Joe, It looks like all the good stuff has been said and I hope you're now OK with starting small and building. All I'll say is 32 is a perfect starting point. I started there 5 long years ago. Big display only happen overnight when you have unlimited resources. The rest of us have to pay as we go. People will love it no matter how many channels or lights you have. Most won't care or even understand. They'll just like what you do and thank you for it. We've all started somewhere. Most of us started exactly where you are today with a dream, a picture in our head and a desire to make other smile. Enjoy the journey and don't get bogged down on the route. Larry

I think the threaded couplers are the problem. They do not provide any strength to the pole. Any lateral load to the top of the upper section will bear on the thread and it will fail very quickly. We put up 27' trees this year made entirely from thin wall EMT We used 1 1/2 bottom section set 18 inches in the ground. Slid a 1 1/4 section 2 feet into the bottom and created a stop point with just a few dimples struck into the 1 1/2 section. One set of 4 guy ropes from the top and it's held up all season and we had a couple 30mph nights. Larry

They will work just fine. I have used many of them. This year we have over 24 of them in the display. One is a 17 foot monster we call the Macy's tree. They hold up fine. The metal does rust a bit but they generally last us about 3 years before they get to ratty to use.

Excellent intro Chuck. One more vital point to add for anyone thinking of entering this highly rewarding, highly consuming hobby. Plan on spending a great deal of time learning how to use the lighting software, then spend even more time actually creating the sequences with it. Oh and buy more extension cords.

A little more info... Most digital camera allow you to adjust the exposure plus or minus 3 settings to the darker or lighter. Many of the simplest models allow some manual user control. Read your user manual and learn about those seldom used manual settings. They can make all the difference in a great display picture and a snap shot. All of my photos are taken from a tripod with a remote shutter release and all pics are bracketed (as it's called) taking the same photo darker and lighter than the camera recommends and never, never use a flash. All cameras have a way of turning the flash off. Keep shooting until you get a good one. Remember too, if you're taking pictures of your own display, set the lights the way you want them after the show and shoot for as long as it takes to get the shot. I just spent 3 hours in the freezing cold shooting pics of my display in the first white Christmas in Atlanta in 133 years. It can't be stressed enough in this day of digital photos, keep shooting until you get the picture you want. I've shot over 1000 pictures this year. 900 of them will be deleted but check my facebook link in the signature to see about 80 good ones.

Robert, follow the facebook link in my signature. There are videos there from visitors. I will not have any video until after the first of the year. There are also a lot more better quality pictures of the trees both lit and daylight. Larry

Ya just can't beat that reflection from the snow... dead Bermuda grass just don't do it.

Merry Christmas everyone! Are we gonna get snow today?

Hey Joey, how did you get 11 Alive to notice you? I got Judy coming Wed, I'm collection for Family Have Charity and I can't get a reply from them. I need a news crew out here bad. If you can drop line to them I'd appreciate it. Larry http://www.facebook.com/pages/Christmas-in-Cumming-Georgia/119990737071

Our lights are up and running everynight.. No stopping for Rain, Snow, Wind or Tornado warnings... But I'm not on your tour list.

Hey guys... light up is Thursday night. Stop by and say hi if you're anywhere near, we'll be out all weekend. We finished the setup yesterday afternoon and anchored down all the wire. Today all we are doing is tightening up the spiral trees, they sagged a little bit in the storm last week. Here's a first this year. We actually managed to pop an LOR fuse. Ran a quick test on the controller and all is well but we kind of lost count on a couple channels. #5 had almost 9 amps and #6 had 7. The side had a total of 22 amps... Oops! Come check it out and don't forget to say hi. New this year: 4 Mega trees, 2 Spiral trees, everything moved around and a lot more lights.