Welcome to the website for our Holiday Lights Display, Christmas on Rose Dawn. This is where you can view videos of our display and learn more about what we are up to during the off season. We plan to share how we do this display so others can use our ideas and techniques in their own displays or share with us how to improve what we are doing.
It is a work in progress, so come back often as we add more content. Thanks for stopping by.
I have taken a few weeks off to recover from the 2012 display takedown and think about what I want to add for 2013. I won’t spill all the beans this early in the year, but will try and post as I am building new items.
A lot of people are concerned with not only how their display looks at night, but also how it looks in the day. Now I certainly have a lot of cords and wires running across my yard, but those aren’t really visible during the day unless you are on the sidewalk looking into the yard. But one thing that does stand out as not being very attractive during the day is all the wires for the megatree. I decided this year I am going to create a “skirt” for the bottom of the megatree to try and hide those cords and wires.
I bought some strands of garland from Garden Ridge during their clearance sale in December. I also got some plastic poultry netting from Home Dep0t. I cut this into 9 foot sections (the same length as the garland) and then attached the garland to the netting. I have six strands of the garland that will make the skirt about 18″ from the ground. I then put some LED lights in between the garland. You can see pictures of the garland being built in this gallery.
The plan is to attach this to the PVC base of the Megatree, creating a way to hide all the wires and cables. I will add those lights to my sequences, probably keeping the colors the same as whatever the megatree has on. I have built about 2/3 of it and need to wait until Garden Ridge puts out it’s Christmas items as a I was a couple of strands short.
I hope this will create a much better daytime look for the meagtree.
Stay tuned as I continue preparations for my 2013 display.
I have just about got everything put away for 2012 and am busy preparing videos for this year. I’ll post them as I finish them. Check out the videos section for the latest ones.
Thank you for your generosity in supporting our charities this year. With the monetary donations and the food, we were able to donate almost 100 pounds of food to the Northwest Assistance Ministries. We also received a lot of canned and dry dog food to donate to local animal rescue organizations.
Thanks again.
We were told this evening that we won the Holiday Lighting Contest for the Dove Manor Section of Gleannloch Farms for this year. This makes the third year in a row that we have won. Come by and check out our display.
Here are the songs we are using in our display this year:
Once again we are supporting two charities in our display.
We are asking if you enjoy the display to consider making a donation to either Northwest Assistance Ministries or Labs Etc. Rescue.
We are collecting canned and other non-perishable food for Northwest Assistance Ministries.
We are collecting dry and canned dog food for Labs Etc. Rescue.
Thanks for your generosity in assisting these organizations.
Our 2012 display went live as of Saturday, November 24, 2012. It was a day later than I had planned, but it was still close.
I didn’t do a very good job this past year in updates as I was constructing new items, but I plan to do better in 2013.
I posted a few new pictures to give you an idea of the changes we did make to the display. Those pictures are located in the 2012 Photos area.
The most major change was rearranging the display. This required a lot of programming changes as I like to do color sweeps across the entire display. The changes I made were to move the 2 8 foot trees from being in the back of the display to flank the Megatree in the raised area of the yard. I did this since these items are taller and can’t be seen as much behind the oak trees. I plan to put some shorter items in their place in the next 1-2 years. I also moved the light rings back, also to give me room for something shorter in its place. I may still move it somewhere else next year.
I also replaced the 8 four foot trees that were on the right and left sides of the sidewalk. The previous ones were good, but they were tall and narrow. They frequently blew over in a strong wind. The ones I replaced them with are a more traditional shape of a Christmas tree, with a wider bottom.
I also tried the CCR’s again this year. I had 2 of these last year, but had problems with the controllers and didn’t use them. I have 3 mounted above the garage face and they seem to be working OK this time around.
The last thing I did was to add four DMX flood lights in front of the house. This was my first attempt in the DIY world as I built these from 5050 modules and 3 channel DMX controllers. They seem to add a nice affect.
I hope to record some video over the next couple of weeks. Watch for it to be posted soon.
With the contributions of food and money, we were able to donate approximately 170 pounds of food to the Northwest Assistance Ministries Food Pantry. Thanks for your generosity in supporting our charities this year.
I am posting videos from this years display as I edit and prepare them. Check out the 2011 video page to see the latest ones.
We were told this evening that we won the Holiday Lighting Contest for the Dove Manor Section of Gleannloch Farms for this year. This makes the second year in a row that we have won. Come by and check out our display.