Christmas Lights Advice

You’re planning another birthday party. You’ve been to the party stores and the department stores for paper decorations. The cake is ordered and the invitations have been sent. However, something is missing. The paper decorations alone just don’t seem to be enough. Why not bring a fun, festive and unique flair to your birthday party by decorating with mini lights? Mini lights are the perfect addition to any party decor.

Decorating for birthday parties doesn’t have to be typical or boring any longer. Use your imagination to utilize mini lights in every way possible for your next birthday party. Here are a few ideas for incorporating mini lights into your birthday party decorations.

Does your daughter love to dress up and pretend she is a princess? Throw her a princess birthday party. Decorate the doorways with pink and white tulle. Then, intertwine pink mini lights around the tulle to outline the doorway. Continue the theme into the party room. Use the same idea to decorate the front of the buffet table and cake table. The gift table would look beautiful with pink and clear mini lights swagged around it against a pink tablecloth. Drape pink mini lights from the ceiling of the party room to add more color. Or, it would be simple to alternate crepe paper and mini lights across the ceiling.

Boys love pirates! Purchase or make a large treasure chest. Decorate it with orange or clear mini lights. Fill it with fake gems and treasures. Perhaps include the game prizes in here too. Are you really creative? Make a cardboard pirate ship in the front yard and deck it out with clear mini lights. This would be especially fantastic for an evening birthday party!

For a fiesta themed birthday party, decorate with our multi colored mini lights. Birthday parties for younger children aren’t the same without a piñata. Create a circle on the ceiling with multi colored mini lights and then hang the piñata right in the middle of the circle. Hang a curtain of multi colored mini lights in the doorway where the children walk into the party room. Place a few blow-up cactus plants around the party room and use either multi or clear mini lights to wrap the cactus and pool some lights at the bottom of the pot.

A Sweet 16 birthday party isn’t complete without pink and purple mini lights decorating the doorways, windows, food table, and even the sidewalks leading into your home or into the party room. Create the number “16″ on a wall with mini lights. Perhaps put pictures of the teen growing up in and around the lit up number.

Decorating for birthday parties for people turning 40, 50 and older sometimes seem to always focus on black items. Why not approach those milestone birthdays a bit differently? Instead of “grieving” the birthday age, celebrate it! Use multi color mini lights or several individual strands of colored mini lights to decorate the party room. Perhaps you’ve chosen antiques for your party theme. If your party area is large enough, bring in antique props, like red wagons and wooden wheelbarrows. The red wagons would look fantastic outlined or draped with red or clear mini lights. The wooden wheelbarrows would be so pretty decorated with clear mini lights. Use old-fashioned lamps on the food and dinner tables. Surround each one with battery operated mini lights for a beautiful effect.

Decorating for birthday parties with mini lights is a great way to create a party atmosphere that is a step above the others!

Shellie Gardner
Mini Lights
Copyright 2008

Santa likes to get out of his red suit in the summer so he’s hanging out over at Christmas Light Source in a Hawaiian print shirt (best source - local resale shop - “just got 4 for $3 each”, says the jolly man) and he’s sporting sandals and a cool drink with an umbrella.

Nice to see him taking it easy in July!!

Shellie

Even in the middle of summer, fudge is a great candy to make for friends - even better because it’s unexpected. I am making a batch for a friend and thought I’d post a couple of my favorite recipes. Try your own additions - like crushed peppermints to make the recipes your own!

Bookmark this post for later because fudge really is one of the absolute musts of any Holiday season. Its melt in your mouth rich flavor is not to be missed and it makes a great gift when your Christmas gift giving budget is running low and your list of friends is long.

Fudge packaged in a pretty box - try a chinese take out style box from a craft store with some colored cellophane - is a great hostess gift and time of year. (maybe you should include a set of battery operated mini lights tied with a bow as well for your hostess to use to accent her table :-))

Chocolate Fudge with Marshmallows

This has to be an all time favorite. It is easy to make and makes enough to satisfy the largest chocolate craving as well as making plenty for gifts. You will want to start out with the following ingredients.

4C of Sugar
1 large can of evaporated milk
1 stick of butter about 1/4 lb
1 oz or 1 sq of Bakers Chocolate unsweetened
1 pkg of semi sweet chocolate chips - 12 oz
1 package of marshmallows - 16 oz
1 tsp of vanilla extract
optional 1C of nuts chopped

Directions

In a large saucepan, combine sugar, milk, butter and chocolate squares. It is best if the saucepan is heavy. Bring the ingredients up to a low boil and stir for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat add vanilla, marshmallows and chocolate chips. Combine until smooth. At this point if you are, adding nuts add them and then pour into a 9×13 in pan. Allow to cool and then cut into pieces. This fudge does need to be stored in a cool location and the recipe makes approximately 5 lbs.

For those looking for a more traditional Chocolate Fudge Recipe here is one that is sure to delight.

Chocolate Fudge Recipe - Old fashioned

You will need the following ingredients

1 1/2 C Milk
4 oz Unsweetened chocolate (Baker’s squares work well for this)
4 C Sugar
3 tbsp Light corn syrup
1/4 tsp Salt
3 tbsp Butter or margarine ( butter is preferred)
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla

Directions
In a 2-3 quart heavy saucepan, combine milk and chocolate. Cook on low until chocolate is melted. Then add sugar, corn syrup and salt. Cook until mixture reaches a boil while stirring constantly.
Using a candy thermometer cook without stirring until the mixture reaches 234F. Remove from heat instantly, ADD Vanilla, and butter. Do not stir these ingredients in.
Cool the mixture until it reaches 110F or until lukewarm, and then beat using a wooden spoon until the mixture begins to thicken and begins to lose its gloss. Approximately 15 minutes then spread the mixture into a buttered 8×8x2 inch pan. Let stand until it has cooled and set then cut into squares and serve. Makes approximately 2lbs

These are just two of the great recipes that can be found for fudge. Fudge can be simple and easy to make but it does take practice. Burning the chocolate can give a rather unpleasant smell and taste as can boiling the milk too hard during the cooking process. The reward however is well worth the added work and fudge can be one of the best home made food gifts that can be given during Christmas and all year long - even summer.

Shellie Gardner
Christmas Lights
Copyright 2008

Most of the seasoned veterans already know that the current generation of retrofit LED Christmas light bulbs (not the pre-lamped sets) are not suitable for choreographed displays but I thought it merited a mention here.

This is due to engineering differences between the sets and bulbs - primarily related to the way the voltage is stepped down in each scenario - and the bulbs receive an impulse when they are rapidly turned on and off due to a capacitor used in their design. So, flash, flash, fizzle.

So, take advantage of the retrofit C7 and C9 bulbs in your gorgeous static displays but as of now don’t purchase them for dynamic computerized displays.

Christmas wreaths have been making a comeback and trying to decide between real or artificial wreaths can be difficult. There are a number of advantages and disadvantages to either of the two options. The choice ends up being one of personal preference. Here are some of the advantages to real and artificial wreaths.

Real Christmas Wreaths

Smell absolutely wonderful. They are bright green, inviting, and warm and have a delightful texture to them. You can decorate them any way you like with mini lights, ribbons, bows or even tree decorations. You can feel the life within a Christmas wreath made of evergreens.

They are also easy to make though they do take a bit more work to make then artificial wreaths. The biggest downside is that because they are alive they are not reusable. You can create a new one each year following the same design or a different one but they will have to be replaced every year. The good news is if you use a live Christmas tree you have plenty of material to build your wreath.

Artificial Christmas Wreaths

Artificial wreaths are quick, easy, come in a large variety of styles, pre-made with decorations, multiple colors, and sizes. They are made of a variety of materials including plastic and cloth. There are some advantages to these. They fit with absolutely any décor because you can find one that works with your decorating theme. They can be reused year after year because they are not alive. They also usually do not lose their needles the way that live Christmas wreaths can.

They do wear out after a while and the plastic becomes fragile and easily starts to lose its shape so it can look limp. They also have a tendency to look artificial unless you take the time to fine dense well made wreaths. You’ll need to be sure to shape and fluff them if you go this route. Since you don’t get that wondeful evergreen smell with artificial wreaths and good Yankee Christmas candle may be in order!

Artificial Christmas wreaths like real or natural Christmas wreaths can be outfitted with lights but you need to consider the temperature of the lights and the material being used. LED lights and mini lights work great in this instance since they tend to remain cooler.

Both of these types of wreathes have their advantages and disadvantages. The choice of which one works for you is entirely up to you and the preferences you have. You can make either one as a craft or purchase them at the stores or on the internet (great if you happen to need a wreath in June).

Live evergreen wreaths are usually only available during the holiday season. However, if you wish to create your own you can use any evergreen that is available in your area. Artificial wreaths are usually available all year round at local craft stores. You can purchase these without any decorations and add your own, this is also typical of live wreaths however you can purchase both of these completely assembled with lights and directions.

So real or unreal - the decision still come to rest on your taste and your project. Hopefully you won’t lose too much sleep making that choice (or better yet do both!)

Merry Christmas (ok, it’s July but all this wreath talk is putting me in the Holiday spirit!)
Shellie Gardner
Christmas Lights
Copyright 2007

Tags: christmaswreaths, artificial vs real christmas wreaths, decorating for Christmas

It is nice to decorate the windows in sparkling lights during the holidays and at other times to let everyone know that it is time for a celebration. Here are a few suggestions to keep in mind!

What Kind of Lights Should I use?

While rope lights are the one of the most common lights to use in commercial applications for outlining windows, there are more lighting options to choose from whether you are lighting a restaurant or a home.

Rope lights look incredible wrapped around windows and can be cut to the desired length (within a predetermined 18 inches or whatever the manufacturer has labeled as the cutting marks) as well. Clips that screw on easily and usually come with the rope lights are used to attach them.

There are mini lights, and larger traditional C7 and C9 light sets can also be used. There are strengths associated with each type of light.

Mini lights are classic and give you alot of choices. There is a large variety in both color and spacing in mini lights and they are extremely versatile and easy to install. You can double back with the lights if you want a closer spacing than what is available. Since they are so light, they are generally easy to install with tape or adhesive mini lights clips that are available online.

Larger incandescent bulbs are the brightest and somewhat more resistant to the elements if you install them outside. They come in two sizes the C7 and C9. These are commonly used to light large areas and can tie in with their traditional use for lining roofs and windows.

Twinkling C7 or C9 bulbs interspersed through your display work great as an accent to any static project. They twinkle or flash as the bulbs heat up and go on and off about every second. If the exterior temperature is too cold, they may not twinkle.

C7 and C9 lights can be installed with a variety of clips and tape. The little clips used for mini lighs with adhesive pads can sometimes be used with these larger lights if you use the clips to hold the wire. Look for different kinds of clips that are manufactured to hold cable at your nearest home impromement centers as well.

Tips for Decoration

There are a ton of color options for windows even though there are those that believe Christmas lights have to be multi color or red and green to suit the Christmas season. When there is lots of snow outside both white and blue lights can give an elegant effect. Using clear mini lights transcends all seasons. From coast to coast, folks are celebrating the Holidays with pink, purple and teal as well as the traditional bold primary colors.

You can also use color to celebrate a favorite sporting team’s colors or use them as part of your overall party theme. Imagine outlining the windows with pink mini lights for a princess birthday party.

Consider developing a theme for Christmas and run with it regarding the lights that you use to accent the windows. The theme should go with the rest of the Christmas items that you have. Red and green lights can be the specific choice is you do a large amount with holly. White lights are the obvious choice is you are doing the theme of a White Christmas.

Look to the colors that you use indoor for your Holiday and party planning and extend those colors to your windows for a unified decorating scheme.

Shellie
LED Christmas Lights
Copyright © 2008 All Rights Reserved

The Fourth of July is a great time to celebrate with our friends and family and to remember how the United States came to be the free country it is today. We all have our own ways of celebrating but almost every celebration could be made more fun and amazing by decorating with white, blue, and red colored Christmas-style lights.

If you’ve never thought of using Christmas lights for your Independence Day celebrations, then trek up into the attic or into your garage, pull down the lights and consider some of the ideas below.

Outdoor Decorations

If you’re having an outdoor barbecue, you may rely on sunlight to brighten your day time activities. But you can also use the Christmas lights to brighten up the area after the sun starts sinking. For example, if you have bushes, hedges, or trees in your outdoor area then string these with the lights.

Do you have an outdoor grill or patio set? Run lights along these outdoor items so they stand out in the dusk, adding color and fun to your festivities and making it a little easier to see what you’re doing.

C7 and C9 Christmas tree lights and mini lights also look beautiful when strung around gazebos, outdoor light fixtures, along the bottom of your home’s gutters, and even on your child’s swing set.

If your car, boat, or other vehicle is visible from your party location, you can always string lights along it as well.

Indoor Decorations

While most of our Independence Day festivities our outdoors, if the weather is too hot or too stormy for those barbecues, we can still spruce up our indoor party with the patriotic-themed Christmas lights.

Look around you living room. You could drape lights around your television and along the shelves of your entertainment center. They can also be hung on the walls using simple push pins or tacks that can be removed once the party is over. Just place the pins to create the design you want and lay the lights over them.

If you want to decorate your dining room or kitchen, the lights can be strung around the corner of the table, around the backs of the chairs, or under the bar.

Stair railings are also great because you can weave the lights around them or drape them over the rails depending on the look you want. With the lights off or turned down, the lights look amazing and can be useful in helping your guests find their ways to the next level of the party.

Other Ideas

If you’re not celebrating the Fourth of July with a party or a barbecue but are having any other type of celebration during the Memorial Day to Labor Day season, the lights can also be great decorations. If you have a June or July wedding, for example, the lights make wonderful decorations for your reception or as a way to light the aisle.

Regardless of how you plan to celebrate or where, you’ll be able to find some unique and creative ways to add color, lights, and fun to the event by using patriotic-colored Christmas-style lights.

Shellie

Christmas Light Source

Perhaps I should have titled this post, “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Nutcrackers but were Afraid to Ask.”

I became faschinated with Nutcrackers when my 3 year old discovered them and lit up everytime he came near one. I know this is a Christmas Lights blog but let’s be crazy and think about our little wooden friends.

Now what do you think of when you hear the term ‘nutcracker’? You probably envision the tool that somewhat resembles pliers. These functional nutcrackers feature two steel fingers (for lack of a better word) joined at a pivot point next to which you insert your nut and squeeeeeeze. They can be used to crack not only nuts, but also for cracking the shells of sea creatures such as lobster and crab.

And now for historical data…….. putting on professor jacket……

It is thought that the earliest manner of breaking open nutshells was by using a stone. It was later that specific tools were designed to make cracking nutshells much easier. Nutcrackers were relatively simple tools at first. Then, during the 16th and 17th centuries, villagers in Switzerland, Germany, France, and England began to create beautifully crafted nutcrackers. It is with those simple villagers that the nutcracker story truly begins.

The villagers in the German regions of Erzgebirge and Sonneberg worked long hours in the mines to earn a meager living. They had little to show for their hard work while those in authority seemed to have everything. In the winter, when work couldn’t be done in the mines, the villagers carved wood to pass the time. They began carving nutcrackers!

Nutcrackers became an art form. They took on the appearance of everything from humans (resembling dolls), animals, and birds. When a nut was placed in the “mouth” of the doll or animal, the fruit of the nut was released by using screws or levers on the back of the nutcracker to move the lower jaw against the upper jaw, effectively crushing the nut. The villagers were amused at this sight because it seemed as though the dolls, often times made to look like soldiers, were cracking nuts for them – a lowly task at best.

Once the mines had given all they had, the villagers began carving nutcrackers all year long. Over time, the soldier nutcrackers became extremely popular and were sold throughout Europe. It became tradition to have a soldier nutcracker standing next to a bowl of nuts on your table during the holidays.

Moving forward to the 18th century, the nutcracker was a unique combination of both an attractive addition to any home and a functional tool. In the 1830’s, the term “nusscracker” was seen in the first dictionary of High German and was defined as “often in the form of a misshaped little man, in whose mouth the nut, by means of a lever or screw, is cracked open”. Probably the most popular nutcrackers resembled kings and soldiers. Nutcrackers are said to inspire E.T.A. Hoffman’s fairy tale “Nusscracker und Mausekonig”. From humble beginnings to inspiring a writer, nutcrackers have since become a symbol of not only function, but also as collectors’ items.

In America, the passion for collecting nutcrackers seemed to emerge sometime in the early 1950’s. Discovered in open-air markets by American soldiers stationed in Germany during World War II, the nutcrackers accompanied the soldier when he returned home from the war and thus, the tradition of the nutcracker was brought to America. According to German folklore, it was believed nutcrackers protected a home from evil. Around the same time, Tchaikowsky’s ballet, “The Nutcracker Suite” became popular in America, further fueling the passion for collecting nutcrackers.

Some of the higher quality nutcrackers we see today still feature careful hand carving. Each nutcracker is created from “living” wood. From beginning to end, the process for each character takes three to four years to complete! Each nutcracker will undergo nearly 100 separate steps to become a functional and beautiful tool for performing the simple pleasure of cracking nuts.

Nutcrackers were traditionally made from wood, but now they are also made from brass, porcelain and silver. One of the most sought after nutcrackers in America is the Steinbach Nutcracker. Steinbach’s are still hand-made in Germany. They are incredibly detailed and come in figures that stand as tall as 18 inches high or as small as 5 inches high. Collectors appreciate these pieces because they are hand crafted, but not necessarily because they actually crack nuts.

Ulbricht, Memory Company, and Glasser are the top brand names for nutcrackers today. Collectors pay anywhere from $25 for one nutcracker, all the way up to over $500 for the finest hand crafted nutcrackers hailing from Germany.

In some homes, the holiday decorating would not be complete without nutcrackers of every shape, color and figure. They’re used to adorn the mantle, the holiday table, the dining room sideboard, or hang as ornaments from the Christmas tree. Most collectibles purchased today aren’t truly functional nutcrackers. Rather, they serve to remind us of a simpler time in history and bring beauty to our home.

And they delight little 3 year old red-headed boys.

Best regards,

Shellie
Christmas Lights
Copyright © 2008 All Rights Reserved

If you’re dreaming of the tropics, they may be as close as your own backyard. A luau is, in essence, a Hawaiian party, often used in Hawaii to celebrate events of great importance like graduations and, especially, the birth of a first child. While most luaus that tourists see are commercial events with hula and gigantic buffets, traditional Hawaiian luaus are generally held in someone’s backyard, especially along the beach where a pig or lomi-lomi salmon can be easily roasted in a pit.

Originally, luaus were called pa’ina (small dinner party) or aha’aina (large feast: literally, a gathering-meal). It was believed that the ancestors of those gathered were also at the feast, partaking, and the dinner was conducted with some ceremony. Each person brought a dish or two, or helped to prepare the largest items like wild pig; this made it something of a pot luck, another Hawaiian tradition. Today, things are less formal and more social. Your luau can be on any part of this spectrum.

Decorations

You can go tacky or traditional with this. Hawaii tends to be on the relaxed side of things, so using things you already have around the house – a cooler for drinks, plain white platters to serve with, etc. — is just fine. There are also great party supply places online for things like fake palm trees and other decorations. Paper plates should be in tropical colors, and really paper, not foam, so they’re easier on the environment (Hawaii is all about the environment).

Use lots of flowers and fruit in your décor. Paper and silk flower garlands are excellent decorations for your table, home, or to camouflage ugly things like electrical cords. Look for grass skirts to wrap your tables in, or just use white tablecloths and make sure you have plenty of bright tropical colors in your serving ware.

Lights

Luaus are traditionally held in late evening, just before sunset. You’ll need to think about lighting, and tiki torches, while they add to the atmosphere, just won’t give you enough light. Mini lights and C7 and C9 lights sets are ideal for this. Good choices for light colors for Hawaiian theme parties are pink, purple, yellow and teal. Run the lights all around your porch or lanai, along the fence, around your trees and bushes. They provide soft romantic light exactly perfect for the magical atmosphere for your perfect luau. If you’re also decorating with fake palms and indoor tropical plants, running mini lights through these will look beautiful, as well.

Leis

Don’t forget to decorate your guests, with lei. These traditional flower garlands should be about 30-36” long, tied at the ends with a ribbon, and placed on the shoulders – not against the neck – of the recipient with a kiss on the cheek, or on each cheek. You can easily make your own leis by stringing together silk flower blossoms with needle and thread, or (if you’re really brave) tough real flower blossoms, running your needle through the thick center of the flower. Look at some examples online; they’re not hard to duplicate. Your own garlands will look much nicer than the cheap plastic version most party stores sell.

Foods

For a luau held outside of Hawaii, you don’t have to have all the traditional foods, and in fact you almost certainly can’t get hold of some (poi, for instance, loses its sweetness within about a day, and prepared from a powdered mix just isn’t as good).

You can, however, find recipes for some items: kalua pork is essentially ground-roasted pig with scant seasoning, laulau salmon can be replicated by roasting your salmon on a top shelf of your backyard grill, and delicious haupia – a solid coconut pudding – can be made with commercially-available mixes or from online recipes (sugar, corn starch, and coconut milk are the primary ingredients).

You can also do poi mai’a, mashed ripe bananas mixed with a little water. Look for recipes for lomi-lomi salmon, poke (a raw fish, like sushi without the rice), and chicken long rice – yard-bird (chicken) is a very common ingredient in Hawaiian dishes! You must, of course, have fruit: pineapple, mango, coconut, guava, banana, tangerine, pomegranate, and papaya are all popular on the islands. Decorate your food platters with fresh flowers: bird of paradise, orchids, plumeria, and ginger are all traditional native flowers. If you can’t find fresh ones, just use silk flower blossoms. For night serving, string white mini lights around all the dishes to provide enough light to see by.

You can’t have a great luau without mai-tais! Decorate your frozen drinks with flowers and fruit, and try to get hold of some real coconut shells to serve them in (available online in many locations).

Music and Ambience

Hawaii is all about music and scent. The air in spring is perfumed with flowers, mostly plumeria and ginger, so look at Bath and Body Works for body sprays you can use on the tablecloths and other fabric decorations to get that authentic smell. On hot days, spray scent on cork or other porous materials that have been lightly soaked in olive oil; the heat of the sun will release your scent slowly.

For music, you’ll need something with a ukulele. One of the most popular artists on the islands is IZ, or Brudda Iz (Israel Kamakawiwo’ole), who created a haunting island rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, among other music, before his death in 1997; this is, for most parties, a perfect choice. You should also be able to find many Hawaiian music collections in the world music section of your local music store.

Food, drinks, music, décor – and your guests. Invite people you love and can relax with, and prepare for a wonderful evening of fun and talking story (conversation).

Aloha,

Best regards,

Shellie
Christmas Lights
Copyright © 2008 All Rights Reserved

June 14, 2008

Christmas Light Source has an entirely new and updated look! Many thanks to everyone who worked on it including the team at iCreativemedia.com. As owner and lead designer, Stacey has really kicked things up a notch making this website one of the coolest places to look for Christmas lights! (if I do say so myself LOL).

We’ll be adding a ton of new products in about 6 weeks and will be kicking off a Grand Opening Sale next week to celebrate the new look. Since pricing will be changing in July/August to reflect higher shipping and copper prices, it will be a good deal for customers to do all their Christmas light shopping REALLY early!!

Regards,

Best regards,

Shellie
Christmas Light Source
Copyright © 2008 All Rights Reserved