I am amazed where people hang lights! You can dress gutters, eaves, trees, outline a house, rocks, bushes, cactus, palm trees, walkways, flag poles, driveways, wagons, wheelbarrows, roofs, fences, mailboxes, lamp posts, dog houses, fountains, and nativity scenes.
Many of you drive me crazy by leaving your Christmas and/or Icicle Lights up all year ‘round. Did you know that leaving your light strings up all year – makes a residence look un-kept and does not help the curb appeal? I’m curious; each year do you test the lights while standing on a ladder?
Are you a homeowner who likes to NAIL or STAPLE lights to your roof so the astronauts and airplanes flying overhead can see and read your display? I must admit, you’re creative!
What’s gaudy? Mixing big bold lights with dainty miniature lights – especially when some are blinking! When I open a new box of lights (which is rare) – I remove the clear, red-tipped bulbs that make the string of lights blink. I know some people that cannot look at blinking lights…it triggers seizures. Plain and simple suits me fine – blinking lights make me nervous!
“The truth – some people can’t stand the musical displays that blink with a different song and never quit. Sometimes people just want to stand in the snow in complete silence and just admire the beauty”, says a friend of mine from West Virginia.
What annoys me? When you drive down a one-way street where there is a display on timers where the different colored-lights come on at intervals. (i.e. blue on bushes comes on first, red is on the roof comes on second, green is on the lawn, etc). You get the idea. Depending on the timing of the light display you may need to drive down that one-way street six (6) times in order to view the entire lighting display. If you’re lucky there will not be a “no parking” sign in front of the display!
Several years ago on my way home from work there was an auto accident. I opted to drive through a neighborhood as a short-cut. I got lost instead – and found myself cornered in a cul-de-sac. A house decorated in red and green lights was choreographed to the beat of music you couldn’t hear. Windows and doors were in red lights, and the outline of the house was in green. It appeared to be music in 4-part harmony. I had sat in my car (for over an hour) trying to figure out the song the house was choreographed to. Eventually I figured it out – it was Handel’s Messiah (a.k.a. Hallelujah Chorus).
I’m passionate about seasonal lighting. I am thinking about it several months in advance. When I look at a house and its lawn I can picture it dressed up with lights, greens, poinsettia, and a nativity scene.
How did I get into spirit of lighting for CHRISTmas? My father hung the Christmas lights when I younger. I just picked up where he left off. Along the way, I learned from the pro – including live science lectures where I’d hear, “You can’t wire it that way, it won’t work – you’ll blow a fuse!”
Many of us (yes, me included) often find discarded “broken” light strings in the curb side trash. Know what? They’re not broken; just tangled. The lights still work – people just lack patience!
My objective every year is to do something a little different while re-using what I already have and not purchasing more. Ever heard the term “trash to treasure”? Keep it simple.
I love going to the hardware store – I pay close attention to what’s new in seasonal lighting display gadgets. What do I mean? Well, how about the special hooks that only work with vinyl siding, roofing shingles, eaves, ornaments that are hung on tree branches. Then there bulb testers, electrical line current testers, extension cords with different types of plugs for several optional uses, special stakes to fasten down items in strong winds, 3-way plugs, and net lights!
I have and use special cords – some of them look like a centipede. Specially wired cords work great with net lights. Net lights make any warped shaped tree, bush or rock look awesome – it’s an optical illusion – Lighting magic. Oh, I almost forgot – my favorite gadget- timers! Especially light-censored timers; set ‘em to test ‘em, and set ‘em and forget ‘em, until you take down the display. Each of these gadgets makes my job much easier and fun!
You’re probably wondering if I’m one of “those persons” who changes bulbs and bands. Yes, I am. I am known for standing outside in the frigid cold temperatures during the season to change a burned out bulb – that at the beginning of the season, was working!
First, I test the burned-out bulb and band to make sure it really is burned-out. Second, I remove the old bulb from the old band throwing way the burned-out bulb. Third, I carefully remove the new bulb and band from the new light replacement string and carefully remove the band from the new bulb. Fourth, you take the new bulb and place it inside the old band because it matches the old string of lights. GE now has special bands in their strings of lights, so the new light bulb bands will not sit properly inside the old light string sockets. You want a sung fit. Fifth, I also go through the procedure of putting the new band of the new bulb back inside the new lights replacement string. You never know you may re-use the wire string and have the correct bands to match.
Yes, the local dollar store does have cheaper light strings – but you get what you pay for – and if I spend MONEY for what appears to be a new string of lights (short-shelf life) and they go out in less than six (6) hours – then what? You’re purchasing more. Did you save money? What about battery operated lights you ask? Please – don’t get me started! After one (1) hour they go out…batteries cost money.
If you think about it, the most important view of the tree is inside your home – the front and the sides that you can see when you walk by a hallway or as you walk through the room. Oh yea, and the view people see through the window from the street.
As an experiment a couple of years ago, I discovered that “net” lights work pretty well on an indoor artificial tree. Only the upper portion of the tree can be seen outside the window and you need net lights hung on the tree in strategic places. One net light string gets placed up and over the top of the tree. Another net light string stretches across the tree on the one side (left) and then another net light string stretches cross the tree on the other side (right); remember, you’re vertically stretching the nets. It came out pretty cool!
By the way, you can only connect three (3) net lights in a series. More than three (3) you will blow a fuse either in your home or all the net lights will not light. Or, have one of those extension cords that are specially designed for indoor trees where the at the top of the cord plug you can light the angel; then mid-way down the inside of the tree there may be another plug for another string of the net lights, etc.
Did you know you can make your light strings last between 10 – 12 years, or longer? Yes, it’s possible!
Here are some Seasonal Lighting dos and don’ts:
·Do – at the beginning of the season before you go purchasing new light strings because you think they do not work – TEST the lines and the bulbs to make sure. You may save yourself some MONEY in the process!
· Do –
when testing your lights look for burned-out bulbs or sensitive sockets. Mark these locations with a dark-colored tweeze. Then UNPLUG the string from the wall and wait 2-3 minutes before handling them to place replace the bulbs. Leave the dark-colored tweeze on the “sensitive spots” as it will remind you next year you have a sensitive spot.· Do – after you have replaced the burned out bulbs then PLUG the string back in to make sure – all bulbs light. Then, UNPLUG and wait 2-3 minutes before handling them to place them on trees, bushes, or an interior tree.
· Do – make sure any extension cords are anchored and pressed into the ground with special stakes with tiny shepherd hooks. Your goal, you don’t want anybody, not even the mail, FedEx or UPS delivery person to trip over the lines in your lawn.
· Don’t ever assume the lights you pulled out of storage work and automatically hang the lights on the eave – it’s rather embarrassing to discover sections of “out” or “burned out” bulbs. Remember the more bulbs burned-out on a line – eventually they will all be out!
· Don’t go plugging different cheap-y brands of light strings into each other. This could/can be a disaster waiting to happen…as in fire! There’s a reason I use GE lights it’s because they have a tendency to use the same wattage bulbs every year. GE lights look and act different than the off-brands. Cheap light strings may not have the same wattage and look a little different in the dark.
· Don’t put the nails or staples through the wire…risk of fire! Make an investment – use the special hooks made to place lights on the roof.
· Don’t try to use out-dated (very old, antique) extension cords into a modernized up-to-code wall outlet. Better to use an extension cord with an updated polarized plug, otherwise you may draw sparks, etc (Yes, I’ve seen this occur…Live science experiment).
· Don’t swing light strings around like jump rope, lasso or lifeline. I’ve watched kids in a neighborhood do this and they wonder why the lights don’t work after they just tested them!
