Christmas Lights Advice

This morning I am catching up all of the email thank you’s with 10% discount codes from the Christmas Light Source recycling program.

Every day we are still receiving 4-6 large boxes of lights to be carted en masse to a local recycling facility that processes them in country in the most ecological way available.

It’s so good not to see these beauties end up in a landfill after dutifully providing hours of sparking light All the proceeds from the recycling program will be used to purchase books for the Toys for Tots program.

Occassionally, we receive boxes of completely unused lights that have never even been out of their packaging. These lights we take to a local thrift store that supports The Safe Haven Women’s Shelter. If you live in the Fort Worth area, consider dropping off your unused items there to support this worthy cause.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer! Now is the time to light up the porch with clear mini lights and think ahead to red, white and blue for the patriotic Holidays as well as we honor our Veterans and Celebrate our Indepence!!!

Happy Summer Everyone!

Shellie Gardner
Christmas Light Source

Spring is in the air and that means Easter is right around the corner! I’ve just published a new article about decorating for Easter and incorporating a little sparke with Christmas Lights.

As spring approaches each year, we anticipate the warmer breezes wafting into open windows and the wonderful sights of spring green leaves and flowers appearing from the once frozen winter ground. The celebration of Easter seems to be the turning point for many of us when we think of spring finally arriving and gracing us with a much-needed respite from the cold, harsh winter months.

See the rest of our article on Decorating for Easter.

Shellie
Christmas Light Source

As we get closer to New Year’s Eve, why not take the time to look at how easy it is to use Christmas lights to decorate for your big party. Now is even a great time to take advantage of those after Christmas sales then store the lights away for use next year.

See my entire article on Decorating for New Year’s Eve with Lights for more ideas!

And Happy New Year! I’ll be posting on taking down and storing Christmas lights within the next couple of days.

Shellie
Clear Mini Lights

The 70 foot Christmas tree from the Bitterroot National Forest has been installed and decorated in front of the our nation’s Capitol and the lighting ceremony will be tonight.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Montana’s Governor Brian Schweitzer will be on hand to officiate at tonight’s event. (I think House Speaker Pelosi will be throwing the switch.)

The Capitol Christmas tree has been known alternatively as the Capitol Holiday tree until Congress changed its name back to include the word Christmas.

It is traditionally decorated with scores of Christmas ornaments made by the children who live in the state that donates the tree. Weighing up to several pounds each, they are certainly a sight to see during the day!

Since 2005, the tree has been lit with LED Christmas lights - first, only 10% were converted in 2005 as an experiment then the Christmas lights were converted to 100% LED from 2006 on to take advantage of the 90% greater efficiency of LED Christmas lights vs. the traditional C9’s that had been used for so many years.

This year, the tree is decorated with 1000’s of C9 LED bulbs strung in 14 gauge stringer wire. Using retrofits allowed the Office of the Architect the flexibility to warm up the tree a bit since LEDs throw alot of blue light. The addition of extra warm white, orange and red will do just the trick.

Look out tonight on CNN for coverage of the event - and hopefully it will hit You Tube as well. The Capitol tree is just another wonderful tradition that helps kick off the whole Holiday season.

Now. To decorate our tree….. 1200 mini lights and a score of Owen and Jack’s ornaments.

Merry Christmas,
Shellie Gardner
Christmas Lights

LED Christmas Lights have really burst onto the scene for Holiday decorating over the last few years. But you may be wondering, “what are those LED Christmas lights and where did they come from?”

Well, I’ve put together a brief history of LED Christmas lights. I’ve refrained from techno-jargon. I’m saving that for another article

Here is a sampling…..

LED Christmas lights are widely accepted now as one of the many choices of Christmas lights available to consumers. However, it was years ago that the concept of LED’s was actually discovered. Christmas lights are a recent application for LED’s. Light emitting diodes (LED’s) were first used for commercial applications. There really is a history behind LED’s and the effect they currently have (and have had in recent years) on the Christmas light industry.

See all of the article Brief History of LED Christmas Lights.

Shellie
C9 LED Christmas Lights

Driving home last night from my son’s violin lessons (an hour away from our home) I was struck by the difference in appearance between “normal” headlights and the new halogen lights that are becoming all the new thing in car headlight technology. I reflected that they perfectly illustrate the differences between cool slash pure slash winter LED Christmas Lights and Warm White LED Christmas lights.

Whether they are sets or bulbs, the whites are in the same category - cool or warm. The cool sets - like the Halogens are sharp and crisp with blue overtones. The warm sets are ….. warmer with yellowish overtones.

The cool white sets look good if you have solar lights that also have that sharp icy look. Quite a bit of the landscaping lighting that you see on the market nowadays has this cooler look so to stay complemetary, it’s nice to know that your Christmas lights won’t have to clash. Pure white LED’s seem to be a prominent choice for commercial applications - both in downtown areas and at large facilities.

Warm white is the color most likely to blend in with traditional mini lights and C7/C9 Christmas light bulbs. There is still limited availability of LED lights in every form of Holiday lighting so if you are going to mix incandescents and LED, warm may be the way to go.

On both style of lights, their warmness or coolness is most noticeable when you hold them up to each other. They both tend to look more neutral but if you put them next to each other or next to their counterpart colors, the visual differences become clear.

As far as popularity, the preference for warm and cool seems to be running 50/50 with strong feelings either way. As it is with all Christmas lights, it’s just a matter of taste

So if you are still on the fence about whether you are a cool or a warm led person, take a drive after dark and oncoming traffic may be able to shed some light on your decision.

Shellie Gardner
White LED Christmas Lights

It’s great how LED Christmas lights come in all sorts of different shapes and colors. Large jobs - outlining walkways and yards - call for larger C7 and C9 style bulbs. Smaller jobs - lighting garland, wreaths, centerpieces, Christmas trees!! — let you choose between a huge array of smaller LED shapes.

I have been recently playing with wide angle LED Christmas lights and I like the way the small flat LED covers can be hidden into greenery and the angle of light diffusion seems to be very even - a nice pinpoint of light.

In the picture above, I’ve “hidden” some of the pure white lights in some sheer silver organza. I’m thinking of using this as a table edge for an upcoming party - or stuffing this into a glass brick for some Christmas decorations (fake present glass brick project!!).

I like the razzberry, strawberry and mini ice shapes of led mini lights for decorating - they all look good in a ton of applications - especially during the Holidays. But having access to the simple neutral lines of these particular light sets - I think I’m going to have fun experimenting with them!!

Shellie Gardner
Christmas Lights

Christmas revelers love the blinking, colored lights that highlight the holiday season, but come January, their utility bill can turn even the zealous Christmas enthusiast into a Scrooge. What’s more, word on the street is that there are many more “would be” Christmas decorators - if only they knew that their holiday lights wouldn’t break their bank. A Fort Worth company, Christmas Light Source, has come to the rescue by offering a nifty little tool on their website that helps those holiday merrymakers determine the approximate cost of their lighting displays. With the rising costs of, well, just about everything, and with consumers becoming more and more aware of their utility bills, this handy dandy little tool is priceless.

Fort Worth, TX (PRWEB) October 31, 2008 — Christmas revelers love the blinking, colored lights that highlight the holiday season, but come January, their utility bill can turn even the zealous Christmas enthusiast into a Scrooge. What’s more, word on the street is that there are many more “would be” Christmas decorators - if only they knew that their holiday lights wouldn’t break their bank. A Fort Worth company, Christmas Light Source, has come to the rescue by offering a nifty little tool on their website that helps those holiday merrymakers determine the approximate cost of their lighting displays. With the rising costs of, well, just about everything, and with consumers becoming more and more aware of their utility bills, this handy dandy little tool is priceless.

Visitors to the Christmas Lights Electricity Calculator plug in a few numbers such as the number of bulbs/nets they are using, bulb size and bulb type and this tool instantly calculates how much electricity their Christmas lights will use based on their electricity cost per kW/hr. There are also helpful hints available to help consumers decorate in a more energy efficient manner and save a little on their utility bill. It can also help those who are considering holiday lighting decorations by giving them some insight on various types of lighting. It can help them decide what kind of lights would be best for them to use and how many lights to use to keep their utility bill at a manageable level.

Tool users are also treated to some very timely, money saving tips. For instance, they are advised to put their lights on a timer because, “Few Holiday-goers are out and about at 2 am in the morning.” Other money saving, energy saving advice that the site offers include considering LED lights and revising the time for putting up and taking down lights (up in late November and down in early January).

As consumers throughout the nation are feeling the crunch from lay offs to rising costs of living, not to mention increased energy costs, people are becoming more aware of their utility bills - and how to cut corners without doing without. “We thought that this would be a fun but useful tool,” says Shellie Gardner, co-owner of Christmas Light Source. “It does automatically what many folks are asking us about - and much more efficiently!” And we all know when it comes to saving money on utility bills, efficiency is the key!

Christmas Light Source is a one stop shopping source for Christmas lighting needs. From hardware to lights and everything in between, Christmas Light Source has everything for holiday lighting decor as well as tips, tricks and do it yourself projects. For more information, visit their website at Christmas Light Source.

Every celebration is better celebrated with lights and the Jewish holiday of Succot, or Feast of Booths, is no exception. Succot is a yearly celebration commemorating God’s protection of the Israelites during the forty years they wandered in the wilderness prior to finally reaching the Promised Land. A new succah is built each year complete with wallsa and a roof. The roof is covered in green leaves. Netting is hung from the ceiling of the succah. Attached to the netting are fruits and vegetables. During the Succot festival, meals are taken inside the succah, along with other Jewish observances in honor of Succot. White mini lights would be beautiful strung across the roof and celing of the succah. The lights would softly illuminate the succah for evening meals.

See more of our article with some quick suggestions for using lights to celebrate some of the Jewish Holidays

You can smell it in the air and see it in every store - Christmas is just around the corner. Christmas stockings hanging in a row on the mantle is a favorite sight in many homes (I know it is in ours!). Get a jumpstart on thinking about what sort of stocking you might hang and what to fill it with - make that list early and save money picking up little items here and there. See Christmas Stockings for my full article.

Merry Christmas (and Happy Halloween!)

Shellie Gardner
Copyright 2008