Planning Ahead

[christmasnut]

With Spring just around the corner...Before we know it Christmas will be upon us again...Have you got any plans to make Christmas 2017 even better...I would love to hear what you have planned for Christmas 2017:gelf:

[ornamentmaven]

No new plans this year. I had a new house to decorate last Christmas - so I will just be "fine tuning" what I did last year!

[wstaple]

Last year, I lined my driveway and mulch beds with C9 lights. As good as it looked, I had three different people back over them with their cars, causing me to have to replace the entire strand of lights each time. This year I'm trying to come up with an alternative use for the lights. I'll probably still line the mulch beds with lights, but I'd like to put them on the edge of the roof near the gutters, too.

I'm looking for a 4'-6' tree to put in the nursery for my grandson this year at our house. I want to start a new tradition with him, decorating "his" tree with his ornaments and lights. He may be too small for it this year, but I want to get it started so he'll hopefully remember it next year.

I also want to add to my Department 56 Christmas Vacation collection this year to make that display a little larger.

That's what I've come up with so far. I know I'll probably add more things I'd like to do over the coming months!

[chocolatechip1979]

This year we will be having another Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. I also want to add more themed cookie exchanges. Would love to take my family to see some snow this year.

[*Snowflake*]

This year we will be having another Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. I also want to add more themed cookie exchanges. Would love to take my family to see some snow this year.

Ugly Christmas Sweater party sounds great !

[polrwht07]

My fiancé and I just had a baby, and we are about to close on our house in the next month, so this year I'll be decorating our house! I'm pretty excited to say the least. I'm not sure as of yet what I will be doing, but it will be fun, not super huge, but very festive.

[chocolatechip1979]

Congrats on the new baby and house.

[wstaple]

My fiancé and I just had a baby, and we are about to close on our house in the next month, so this year I'll be decorating our house! I'm pretty excited to say the least. I'm not sure as of yet what I will be doing, but it will be fun, not super huge, but very festive.

Congratulations!

[ornamentmaven]

Congrats on the new baby polrwht!

Good to see you here chocoltechip

[chocolatechip1979]

Thank you ornamentmaven... I really do love being part of this group.

[ChantelleJoy]

Thank you ornamentmaven... I really do love being part of this group.

:merrychristmas:

[snowbell1]

Our Happy Christmas Home.:santa2::christmastree:

[chocolatechip1979]

I concur with you Snobell1 :home:

[JollyElfDC]

Haven't thought much about how I'll do the decorations this year, but I have been thinking about Christmas dinner, and how I'm going to set the table.

[ornamentmaven]

My older daughter has moved back home temporarily this year and is using the den as her bedroom. If she is still here at Christmas time, that means no Christmas village this year. The den is the only space I have to set it up. I will miss it, but it will make decorating soooooo... much easier!

[TooSweetForMe]

Oh my goodness - at least you have your daughter home with you. Maybe she will help you some and the decorating will be even easier.

[ornamentmaven]

Oh my goodness - at least you have your daughter home with you. Maybe she will help you some and the decorating will be even easier.

No - she has NEVER helped with the decorating - but loves looking at it!

[JollyElfDC]

No - she has NEVER helped with the decorating - but loves looking at it!


This is one of my pet peeves. Everyone expects me to host a large dinner and do all the decorating myself. When I ask people to help decorate the tree, I get "I'm too busy, besides Christmas is your thing." It's enough to make me go Scrooge!

[Crazymike1965]

Actually I do almost all the decorating and all the cooking while my wife sits back with a bottle of wine or two and watches me lol

[ornamentmaven]

This is one of my pet peeves. Everyone expects me to host a large dinner and do all the decorating myself. When I ask people to help decorate the tree, I get "I'm too busy, besides Christmas is your thing." It's enough to make me go Scrooge!

Oh, I hear you!!! My nickname is "The Boss of Christmas"

[polrwht07]

Thanks to everyone for the congratulations. We've moved into our new home, and this year it appears we're going to be doing icicle lights on the gutters, and I want to do multi-colored chasing lights around the roof (outlining it). I think we may do something up the driveway, like candy canes, or something. No inflatables this year, but haven't ruled it out for next year. I'll post pics as I start to collect and put the decorations up.

[snowbell1]

I'm adding another tree this year and i'll be adding more of own greenery and some of my own red bows that i make also adding more lights this year also i have window boxes now which i will do up for christmas as well.:santa2:

[Mistletoe]

This is one of my pet peeves. Everyone expects me to host a large dinner and do all the decorating myself. When I ask people to help decorate the tree, I get "I'm too busy, besides Christmas is your thing." It's enough to make me go Scrooge!
It's a killjoy when people don't want to join you in the festiveness!

I'd like to decorate with some wreaths again (we don't usually have them), as I've enjoyed the ones we made this year.

One day I'd like to have a skinny tree in the dining room, but there's no room in there right now.

[nhutcuong96]

Hello

[nhutcuong96]

hey, i have an idea

[aalya]

I have a plan to decorate the area with balloons.

[lizziesnow123]

great idea...

[chocolatechip1979]

This Christmas will be a little different for us. Our first dog ( Bobo) passed away 3 weeks after Christmas last year. We include our dogs in everything for the holidays. From baking doggie treats, family photos, holiday light watching, opening stockings and even Christmas morning. It will be a little tough to celebrate with a lump in my throat. But will cherish her memory always.

[JollyElfDC]

This Christmas will be a little different for us. Our first dog ( Bobo) passed away 3 weeks after Christmas last year. We include our dogs in everything for the holidays. From baking doggie treats, family photos, holiday light watching, opening stockings and even Christmas morning. It will be a little tough to celebrate with a lump in my throat. But will cherish her memory always.

Sorry for the loss of your pet.
I think this Christmas is going to be tough for a lot of people for various reasons. One of my friends lost his mother to Corona virus, and she absolutely loved the holidays! I know her presence will be missed by his family.

[snowbell1]

Christmas will be different as this year it will be quiet here just my son and our dogs as our family has made a choice to stay in our own homes but,will be chatting online and visiting with each other there,as our numbers here have been climbing we all made this better choice.Of course my baking and confection making is put on hold this year which i have to say this slow way of life has been good as you can really enjoy that every moment and the beauty that it holds.Our home will still be decked out and i will be baking for us and making my furbabes treats but,it will be a quiet time as we'll be able to truly enjoy the spirit of the season to enjoy the beauty of the season making our own little family memory which will be cherished.:christmastree:

[Papa_Christmas]

A plan sounds like work. Christmas decorating to me is a labor of love, I wait the whole year for it to arrive.
It is very labor intensive,but fun at our house and we will do what we can do and sometime not long after Thanksgiving we will declare it finished.
Then I will pour a couple of glasses of Christmas cheer for my Good Lady Wife an myself and we will sit and enjoy our efforts until it's time to clear it all away for another season.

[wstaple]

I spent a couple of hours yesterday switching out the incandescent C9 bulbs with LEDs. I priced getting two new breakers installed to handle the strain of the lights, but buying new bulbs cost less than 1/3 of that cost.

Since I'm a Christmas nerd (my wife said she loves that about me, by the way), I tested the wattage on both incandescent and LED strings. I went from 175-181 watts per strand to 15-16 watts per strand. Huge difference! While the cost savings will be nice, the main reason I switched is because my wife couldn't dry her hair if the outside lights were on. For those of you old enough to remember the show Green Acres, it was a lot like that. So now I can basically run 12 strings of LED lights for the same wattage as 1 string of incandescent lights.

[Mistletoe]

I spent a couple of hours yesterday switching out the incandescent C9 bulbs with LEDs. I priced getting two new breakers installed to handle the strain of the lights, but buying new bulbs cost less than 1/3 of that cost.

Since I'm a Christmas nerd (my wife said she loves that about me, by the way), I tested the wattage on both incandescent and LED strings. I went from 175-181 watts per strand to 15-16 watts per strand. Huge difference! While the cost savings will be nice, the main reason I switched is because my wife couldn't dry her hair if the outside lights were on. For those of you old enough to remember the show Green Acres, it was a lot like that. So now I can basically run 12 strings of LED lights for the same wattage as 1 string of incandescent lights.
Wow, that's quite a wattage difference. Is the richness of the colors greatly diminished?

Though I see why you had to switch over, I will observe a moment of silence for the loss of the incandescents. :elf2:

[Mistletoe]

A plan sounds like work. Christmas decorating to me is a labor of love, I wait the whole year for it to arrive.
It is very labor intensive,but fun at our house and we will do what we can do and sometime not long after Thanksgiving we will declare it finished.
Then I will pour a couple of glasses of Christmas cheer for my Good Lady Wife an myself and we will sit and enjoy our efforts until it's time to clear it all away for another season.
When do you start taking things down?

[Papa_Christmas]

When do you start taking things down?

It takes so long to put up and we love the decorations and the house looks so bare after it's all put away that we don't get in a big hurry to take down the inside decorations.I would say it's usually all cleared away by the end of January.

[wstaple]

Wow, that's quite a wattage difference. Is the richness of the colors greatly diminished?

Though I see why you had to switch over, I will observe a moment of silence for the loss of the incandescents. :elf2:

One of the reasons I was hesitant about switching to LED was the light color. These bulbs are very warm and very similar to the incandescent lights. Hope to start getting them out later this week.

[Mistletoe]

It takes so long to put up and we love the decorations and the house looks so bare after it's all put away that we don't get in a big hurry to take down the inside decorations.I would say it's usually all cleared away by the end of January.
That's when I take down the inside decorations, too. It's so true that everything looks bare when they're gone, after all that abundant festive coziness.

[Mistletoe]

One of the reasons I was hesitant about switching to LED was the light color. These bulbs are very warm and very similar to the incandescent lights. Hope to start getting them out later this week.
Thank God for advancing technology!

[jonnybill]

Our Happy Christmas Home.

[Mistletoe]

Our neighbor has some of the new colored LED C-7's this year and they look like rich colors. I'm considering working them into my outdoor light rotation next year... The mini lights are pretty, but the C-7's are fun.

Does anyone know if the LED strands have the same problems as the mini light strands of half a strand going out periodically?

[Papa_Christmas]

If you get LED's with the traditional screw in base you want have those problems. I have LED C9 lights all the way around my house the light strings will hold incandescent or LED bulbs.You can get the strings as long as you like and you just put the plugs on your self (very easy)


https://dwprolights.com/

[Mistletoe]

If you get LED's with the traditional screw in base you want have those problems. I have LED C9 lights all the way around my house the light strings will hold incandescent or LED bulbs.You can get the strings as long as you like and you just put the plugs on your self (very easy)


https://dwprolights.com/

Thanks for the info!

[Bishop1954]

LEDs are very cool (and bright), but I still have a ton of the incandescent C-7 and C-9. I might switch when the LED comes out with a twinkle version... lol :home: