For years I had a 20 minute rule for outdoor decorating: if it took longer than 20 minutes for get it.
And I had it down: 1. hang a small wreath on the two wall lights on either side of the garage door in back, 2. hang a large pre-wired wreath off the front of the porch in front, 3. wrestle an extension cord out to said wreath from inside the porch. Done. About 20 minutes.
Life was good.
Then I started getting fancy. I started adding on a timer, lights in the bushes and other stuff. Mission creep.
This year: 1. one red and one green light bulb in the wall lights on either side of the garage door. 2. fancy 16 color changing light bulb with it's own remote in the can light on the porch. That's it, change 3 light bulbs. 5 minutes tops. W00t!
I'm waiting for an AI-assisted outdoor laser light show. Plug it in, it scans the house, then determines the best graphics to project. As it happens, I was digging around in Amz just this morning to see what the state-of-the-art laser show might be. Answer: not much.
What about your inside decorations, particularly the PITA tree?
For the first time in my life I hung lights on the house this year. Also the first year I have ever owned a house. Just some lights along the roof line and a couple trees in the front. I am guessing I will add a few strings here and there every year for the next few years. There are still a couple trees that could be covered and I want to do around some windows. All in all it took me about a hour with help from my 6 year old. Without his help it would have taken 30 minutes.
>inside
None. I have one of those 1950's ceramic trees that sits on a table, but I haven't bothered with it over the last few years.
Quote from: DrCool on December 04, 2018, 10:20:17 PM
All in all it took me about a hour with help from my 6 year old. Without his help it would have taken 30 minutes.
:)
>PITA tree
OK, you beat me with the ceramic one ...but I'm getting close. Last year I gave away the huge, fiber-optic-lighted tree. I replaced it with a lighted pop-up tree with ribbons & ornaments permanently attached. I clipped out the lighting and replaced those with led "fairy lights.' I tossed the crappy oem pole and base and fabricated a taller, sturdier one. The whole thing folds flat into a storage bag. It took 15 minutes to set it up this year, if you include the 10 minutes it took to drag it out of the attic.
Louise then spends 45 minutes adding additional ornaments, but I don't care 'cause that's not my job. Tree ends up looking great.
Started with something similar to this:
https://www.hammacher.com/product/thomas-kinkade-pop-up-6-foot-christmas-tree
>pop-up
Your arrangement sounds pretty slick and fast for a big tree. LED Christmas light strings is one of the best inventions - evar!
My grandparents had a 4 ft tree decorated perfectly. My grandfather would put a clear dry cleaning bag over it and carry it to the storage room after Christmas. That was the best 1970's tech could do.
I ordered a snowflake projector light (mission creep again) and I'm going to experiment with it. It has slides for different holidays so maybe I can use it for Halloween too.
"Then I started getting fancy. I started adding on a timer, lights in the bushes and other stuff. Mission creep."
Ruth Ann is in charge of MISSION CREEP at our home :-)
>My grandfather would put a clear dry cleaning bag over it and carry it to the storage room after Christmas. That was the best 1970's tech could do.
Christmas was a *HUGE* deal for my mom, but as she got elderly she couldn't do much decorating. So, after she moved to her condo, she called the florist and told them to decorate a 5ft commercial-grade artificial tree with wired-on ornaments, garland, lights and come set it up. It was gorgeou$. After that, all I had to do was put it on the elevator and move it back & forth to a walk-in closet in a spare bedroom. Perfect!
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>help from my 6 year old. Without his help it would have taken 30 minutes.
Don't get me started about my slave-labor years doing decorations with my dad. That guy was a Christmas-decorating nut. (As a business owner, I suspect he charged it all off to advertising.)
This in my little town. 2 minute vid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWxY_5gvUEc
I know this guy, he's very nice. It gets more elaborate every year. It's our big tourist attraction.
>big tourist attraction
My dad did utility grid & power transmission line design "off the cuff" for cities, counties, REAs. They owed him a lot of favors. So.....
One day, bucket trucks and hook-n-ladder fire trucks showed up in our back yard along the waterfront, which was across the river from one of the main causeways entering our small downtown. The crews spent the day stringing massive strings of line-voltage, colored lights (these were full-sized weatherproof bulbs, it was before the days of mini-lights). The tree was an ancient, huge, *very* tall (80-90 ft) cypress.
I don't remember how long it took to run power out to this tree, but when they finally threw the switch one evening traffic stopped. You could see that tree for -literally- miles. The town couldn't compete. After a few years, the town strung lights on their water tower and outdid his tree.
Luckily, I wasn't forced labor on that job ...but it was an omen of things to come.