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 How it all began...
Although 1996 was my first "big" display, it was not the first time I`d lit up for the Festive season. That was way back in 1992, I was about 12 and had recently "taken over" the small box-room at the front of the house. Ever since I was a little`un, I`d be forever messing with electrical bits and pieces, and finally had a place to keep it, instead of all those bulbs, wires, batteries and things being strewn accross my bedroom floor! Aside from storage space, that room had something else that my bedroom did not have- a window at the front of the house. Around the back is the garden, with large trees to the rear of that- so the only windows visible to passers-by are those at the front. Why is this significant? Well I`d always loved to see christmas lights in other peoples windows, and always wanted some of my own too. And here I am in about 1992, finally with a window of my own that I could illuminate. So, with permission granted from my parents, that`s exactly what I did. It was only a short string of 20 multicolour lights, but it was enough- and I was extremely happy! Lights of my own! The following year I added to it- this time, two 20-bulb sets (one clear and one multicolours) and a home made controller to flash them- a simple affair based on a modified "flashing LED xmas star" kit, an electromechanical relay and a pair of household socket-outlets. The electronics (mounted in a box) and the two sockets were screwed onto a small strip of wood, and the lights plugged in to the pair of outlets. Accompanied by a "click" from the relay every second or so, the two light sets around the window flashed back and forth. Not much by today`s standards, but for a 13-year-old, quite an accomplishment, of which I was very proud. 1994 saw a bit of a direction-change (something which I`m fond of doing even today). No 20-bulb standard light sets, but instead something I`d recently discovered. LEDs! I`d known about LEDs for ages, even had some, but in the early days I didn`t have a soldering iron, and the pins were always breaking off after wrapping and re-wrapping all those wires around them (the only way I could connect to those colourful little things) which put me off them for a bit. Well eariler in `94 I re-discovered the joys of colourful, solid, bright LEDs (armed with a soldering iron this time!) and with the festive season approaching, started fashioning strings of decoration lights with them. I found that 6 LEDs (red, green or yellow) connected in series would work properly from a 12 volt supply without resistors or controllers of any kind. And if I made up series-wired groups of 6 LEDs, all connected in paralell one after the other in a long line, they made great Christmas lights. So for 1994, my "display" comprised of green and red LEDs, and tinsel garland. Using vast amounts of tape, I stuck the tinsel to the windows to make a tree-shape, and stuck the LED light strings around to follow the shape too. They weren`t very bright and they kept falling down, but they were unique. In 1995 I "graduated" from indoor window lights, to the big wide world of the Outdoors. Until a big load of snow in early 1996 flattened it, we used to have a tree growing next to the front door- in which I put a set of 80 low voltage chaser lights, up near the top. As well as those, lower down by the door, I added a few homebrew lights made from the remnants of the now-defunct 20-bulb sets I`d used in previous years. I hadn`t ever been able to find spare bulbs for them so they were largely useless after a few years of use, until I got that low voltage chaser set, and saw some potential to re-use them. European outdoor lights are wired usualy in many series groups of 10 2.4 volt bulbs, which connect to a 24v transformer. Our local Supermarket were selling those 2.4 volt bulbs extremely cheaply, so I picked up as many as I could afford, and set to work on those old 20-bulb sets. It was a simple enough case of cutting them in half, fitting the new bulbs in and hooking them to a 24 volt transformer I`d scavenged out of something broken. Presto- more outdoor lights! For a bit of added sparkle, each set of 10 was fitted with a blinker bulb to make the whole string flash on and off. Two of these 10-sets went in the bush with a 3rd taped along the guttering above the porch. It looked good. Topping everything off- LED lights. 18 red, yellow and green LEDs around the upstairs-middle window which had a 3-way "chaser" controller. Finally more LEDs either side of the front door- two sets of 12 (one each side) in red, green, orange and yellow, and a simple controller flashing each set on and off in turn. Because there are no outlets to plug lights in by the front door, these low voltage LEDs ran from a large 12 volt sealed-lead-acid battery. I just left them on all the time- it lasted the whole season (only needing a top-up charge half way through) as they took so little power. And so we reach 1996 where my lights took off in a big way- as you will no doubt have seen by now. I`ve never looked back! I look forward to putting up my lights every year- usualy my plans for the season begin in the summer, and as the nights draw in and the year nears its end, then I put those plans into reality. Displays typically turn on around the second week of December, in recent years it`s been December 13th, and lasting right up until January 6th when it is traditional here to take down your christmas tree and turn off your lights. Only the electricity bill puts me off from turning it all on sooner, although it isn`t as high as most would think. In 2000, my display was the most power-hungry with over 800 large bulbs- and even then, it took less power than the average electric heater- things that are commonly used in the cold weather- so our power bill is a bit more in Winter time anyway . Why on earth do I do it? Well.....I suppose it`s mainly because I always loved to see christmas lights ever since I was very young. I feel that without the lights and decorations of the Festive season, winter would be a bleak and depressing time. I`m not a religious man in any way shape or form, but Christmas means so mucn more to me now than just one day- it`s a whole season where, for an all-too-short time, a little bit of magic decends on the world around us. No other time of the year is quite like it. Maybe there`s still a little bit of the child left in me- who still believes in Santa and all those other wonderful stories we tell our children! Christmas seems to lose its "magic" as you get older, which I feel is kind of a shame, so I guess Christmas lights are just my way to try and get back a little bit of that festive magic every year- and pass it on to others. People like to see them, they cheer most people up, maybe they`ll be inspired to put up lights of their own, and the world will be even brighter and more colourful for a month every year when the nights are long and the weather is miserable! If only I still believed in Santa Claus...... :) |
