Frequently Asked Questions

Over the course of the season, many questions were asked, this page is meant to capture the most frequent of all questions and provide some answers, (in case you were too embarrassed to ask). But next year, feel free to fire away! The first 2 questions below are tied for the MOST asked questions

Where do you store all the stuff? - Up till this year, we have put everything in the attic space above the single car side of our garage. There is quite a lot of room. I have put down plywood, made some hangers etc... But this year, with the additions, I most likely will use the crawl space under my house. There is about 4ft of room under there, and the large Christmas Tree in our Living Room has always been stored under there since we bought it.

How does Santa in the Window work? - Santa is by far the highlight of the display. He is a DVD that is bought from Christmas Light Show on my Links page. It is played on a personal DVD player, connected to an InFocus projector which is aimed at a screen that is built for my Home Office window. If you walked around, or had your windows down, you would have even heard him rustling around, wishing you a Merry Christmas, and a few other things. There is a speaker that looks like a Snowman decoration that broadcasts the sound.

How is it that we can hear it on the radio? - I have a Ramsey FM100B transmitter that allows me to broadcast an FM signal on any frequency within the FM spectrum. I have to find dead air space, so as not to be overrun by the FCC licensed stations in the area. The FCC allows individuals to broadcast within a 200ft buffer around their home without having a license. I connect the audio output jack on my computer to the transmitter, and viola! a radio station. I even have software to be a full fledged radio station that is used during the day when I broadcast my Christmas Carol collection. A microphone jack on the transmitters allows me to make "live" announcements if needed.

Do you work for a living? - Yes. I have a pretty demanding full time job in the electronic design automation market. CAD software for designing integrated circuits, PCB's and Microelectronics. Cadence Design Systems. I travel a significant amount during the year. So while working in electronics, I am not an electrician by any stretch. What I do at Christmas is all part of being a homeowner and Weekend Warrior. I get help and advise from friends, relatives and my brethren on the various Christmas Forums I participate in.

Do you make it all yourself? - Some items are purchased, that are obvious, or at least to me. To date these are the wireframe items, inflatable's, and what we call the Blow Molds. Rudy and the Mega Tree Star are the exceptions, I bought the wireframes bare, and put LED lights on them. I made all the arches, both large and small, they stay wrapped except if I have to change out a light string. The Candy Cane Posts up the drive and walk were also home made. Next year, I will be making a few more items that make sense to do myself. I will be adding a page on this website that will explain some of the How-To's, or links to How-To's that I use myself. Check back later for progress on that page.

How long does all this take? - This is a multipart answer. This is a 9-10 month a year part time hobby. I do have a life, job and other interests, but I love making the display happen. Planning is easy, what fell out of the year before, goes into the next years display. Fixing, creating, maintaining starts in the summer, the music programming will be more year round in 2008, and the set up normally starts in early November. I target Thanksgiving for Light Up. This year however, I was in China for effectively 13 days, I was 13 days setting up due to many unforeseen issues and problems, and the weather. We were 13 days late getting Light Up. No time could be made up. I did the set up all myself, working very odd hours and many 20 hour days. Remember, I still work for a living.

How do you get the lights and music to go together? - Light O Rama is the product I use. They sell controllers that manage the lights. They also sell the software which is needed to drive the controllers. The program is very Excel like, for those of you who work with or know spreadsheets. My light strings have names and are listed on the left side, the song is imported and displayed in time segments across the top. Time is divided into 10ths or 100ths of a second. I go to the light string I want to do something with, locate the time in the song I want to do it, and either turn them on/off, fade up/down, or twinkle/shimmer (strobe). Christmas songs are edited down to two minutes to a max of 2 1/2 minutes, where it makes sense. Once proficient, at 2 1/2 minutes it takes 8-10 hours to program a song. I am NOT proficient yet, but getting there!

Why SPECIAL OLYMPICS Washington ? - Sports growing up played a big role in my life, in many ways. I loved them, and still do. When I moved to Seattle in 1988, I met one of my best friends today. He married a woman, who, from a previous marriage had 2 handicapped boys. Both participated in SOWA for years, and it was phenomenal to see the joy they got from participating. Sports provides a sense of accomplishment and camaraderie. It's an outlet for growth. SOWA gives all this to kids who are less fortunate physically than most.

How long have you been doing this? - Growing up, my parents decorated the house for Christmas. Dad did some lights on the gutters, we had one, sometimes 2 Christmas Trees in the house and decorations as well. It was always festive.  We had a close personal friend who had a Christmas Tree lot that I worked at for several years while growing up. My mom loves Christmas Carols and still does, which is where I get my love for them today. I have had an indoor display since I was on my own, at about 20. A tree, some decorations, etc... When I got my own home, I started putting up lights inside and out.  The outside has been growing since 1989. About 4 years ago, I wanted to start to do something different. I found Planet Christmas for the vendors they have listed. Some wireframes were purchased, then, I found the forums behind the front page, which is where oodles of information is shared. Once I found this, I became aware of the possibilities that computer animation provided. In the past 3 years things have accelerated to where they are today. So I experienced Christmas in many ways growing up which had an influenced on me, still does, and I am in turn sharing that with my family and you.

Copyright 2008 Woodinville Wonderland