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  • Santa Claus's sleigh is led by eight reindeer: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder (variously spelled Donder and Donner), and Blixem (variously spelled Blixen and Blitzen), with Rudolph being a 20th-century inclusion.
  • Outdoor Christmas lights on homes evolved from decorating the traditional Christmas tree and house with candles during the Christmas season. Lighting the tree with small candles dates back to the 17th century and originated in Germany before spreading to Eastern Europe.
  • That big, jolly man in the red suit with a white beard didn’t always look that way. Prior to 1931, Santa was depicted as everything from a tall gaunt man to a spooky-looking elf. He has donned a bishop's robe and a Norse huntsman's animal skin. When Civil War cartoonist Thomas Nast drew Santa Claus for Harper's Weekly in 1862, Santa was a small elflike figure who supported the Union. Nast continued to draw Santa for 30 years, changing the color of his coat from tan to the red he’s known for today.
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Jumping Icicle Lights Repro

jstorms
By jstorms, 08/10/2011
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  • 1 comment

I was blown away by Bill Vaughn's Christmas display in Alexandria, VA. His eves looked like they were jumping to the beat. Looking for other displays doing this I found Tim Herberger's display and was very impressed. I thought the effect of the jumping lights breathtaking and I worked to reproduce the effect the best I could in my garage in Round Rock, Texas. My repro is not worthy of the original, but good enough for me.

Hardware:

LOR CTB16PC Using 2 channels

TOP: 1 strand of LED C5 Blue from Lowes (50 cnt)

BOTTOM: 1 strand of LED mini-Star Icicles Blue from Wal-Mart (75 cnt)

Music: Sandstorm (Radio Edit) by Darude, Before The Storm (3:34)

Software:

Light-O-Rama S2 2.9.4

inspired by Bill Vaughn

inspried by Tim Herberger

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Comments

Chance Reecher

Hmm... I might just have to do this in my display this year! I finished my planning a couple days ago, and not even considering doing something like this, planned for strings of single white lights running along my gutters along with the red, green, and blue that usually accompany my icicles.

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