Calculating the power...

It's a pain planning your lighting project and not knowing how much juice you're going to need. Well, bust out the calculators, here are some tips.

Standard C7 Bulbs are 5 watts
25 Bulbs = 1.14 approx Amps
50 Bulbs = 2.3 approx Amps
100 Bulbs = 4.5 approx Amps

Standard C9 Bulbs are 7 watts
25 Bulbs = 1.6 approx Amps
50 Bulbs = 3.2 approx Amps
100 Bulbs = 6.4 approx Amps

Mini lights vary in voltages but many we carry are 2.5 volt
300 Mini lights = 1 Amp

Total Number of Bulbs X Bulb Wattage ÷ 110 = Amps Needed

These are the rules we run with, we hope they help you when planning your lighting project.
--
Zach Broyles
All American Christmas Co.

Minimum phone order?!

No one likes minimum orders, but for some businesses it's crucial to keep the operation running smoothly. Our minimum phone order is 150 dollars, now for some people this may seem outlandish but it really does help our office run better which in turn makes everyone happier.

During our busy seasons we get calls constantly, A third of them are just obvious questions that are answered on the site, another third is questions that can't be answered on the site, and the last third is orders. We have the minimum because if we take many small orders for 1 or 2 items it's very easy to screw those kind of orders up by miscommunication. Any sort of miscommunication over the phone means a wrong product is shipped and the little mistakes like that usually cost the most to fix. We implemented the minimum phone order after dealing with many people saying they received an order with an item they didn't want but told us they wanted. This is frustrating for everyone.

This is just a little view into the minds here at aachristmas.com, we want to make the best shopping experience available for the customers and be able to provide the best services available.

--
Zach Broyles
All American Christmas Co.

Oh, the holidays....

We hope everyone had a great Easter, full of way to much running around hunting eggs with quarters and candy in them and one to many chocolate bunnies. I know that when any holiday that traditionally involves candy is going to end up with me being sick for the following week because I overload my system with sugar and lack of real food.

If you are wondering when some of our Mini lights are going to be back in stock the answer is...not soon. We are still waiting on the our major orders and our 20s and 35s should be in around June. It takes a while to get everything during this time of the year.

--
Zach Broyles
All American Christmas Co.

LED light burnout

A common concern with LED lights is if they have a lot of issues with burning out. LEDs generally last longer than any other bulbs on the market, on average our standard bulb sets last 200,000 hours! So if theres 365 days in a year, and each day lasts 24 hours, then a year is only 8,760 hours. So, in theory LED bulbs should last 22.83 years...That's a long time. If a LED does happen to burn out on a string the rest of the lights stay lit.

We often tell customers about the LED lights we have in our warehouse that light up the building in the dark. We're not a high tech operation, but that doesn't mean we aren't crafty. In the rear half of our building we strung up 4 or 5 sets of blue C6 led light strings along the ceiling to give a little light when its dark. These lights were put up whenever we first starting getting LED lights (maybe around 4 years ago), they only turn off when the power goes out, and they are still burning. These early LED Christmas strings are not half as good as these new sets, the technology is better and the bulbs just plain look better.

If you are thinking of making the switch to LED the benefits definitely trump the up front cost. Less electricity costs, longer bulbs life, more vibrant bulb colors.

Click here to check our LED lights

--
Zach Broyles
All American Christmas Co.

Lighting Glass blocks

It seems like every day we get calls about people looking for lights to go inside Glass blocks, like the one shown above (image from www.homedepot.com). These glass blocks are usually used to make a wall or some sort of divider in a bathroom and can be found at places like The Home Depot. The way people put lights in these is really simple.

1. Get a pack of Glass Blocks
2. Get a Drill bit for drilling glass (1/2 inch is a good size)
3. Get some mini lights that DO NOT have a end plug. 35 light count is what we recommend.
   
4. Drill a hole into the block where you would like to insert the lights.
5. Carefully push the lights into the block through the hole.
6. Plug them up to make sure you didn't loosen any bulbs during the install
7. If the lights work, you're done. Unless you want to wrap the block in ribbon , which is also popular.

These have been a very popular craft lately, we get a lot of calls and email asking about it. People use them for center pieces, gifts, and whatever else strikes their fancy.

Click here to see our selection of mini lights

--
Zach Broyles
All American Christmas Co.

Wedding Lights...

One of the most popular uses for Christmas mini lights during the off seasons is using a white wire set to decorate for a wedding. Using mini lights for a wedding is a great way to accent windows and tables, but the uses don't stop there. Anywhere you want to set the mood or give some soft lighting will look great strung up with lights for your wedding. My sister just recent got married and she wanted arches lit with rice lights, Dad got some PVC pipe, painted it, made some brackets to go around (and protect) the pew, and we strung it up with lights. Here's a picture of what it looked like, we also used LED Net lights on the stage underneath some nice fabric. This picture was, obviously, taken during the day and the effect isn't as breathtaking as it was during the ceremony.


Many people use curtain lights during a wedding for the reception, this is a great way to make a simple doorway more interesting. The number of ways you can add a little bit of mood lighting to any ceremony is limited only to your imagination. Check out all our wedding and christmas products at our website

Wedding Section
Mini Light Section
LED Section

--
Zach Broyles
All American Christmas Co.

Spring Cleaning...

It's that time of year again, time to buckle down, reorganize, and clean up our warehouse. We try to keep a well organized warehouse for two reasons; To make less mistakes and allow orders to get pulled and shipped faster. Though we've been online for many years and have one of the web's premier Christmas Light stores we are a very small operation. Having a small number of employees and a big warehouse that needs all the shelves reorganized can be a little intimidating, but it's one of those jobs you have to do whether you like it or not (like cleaning the gutters).

By the time our shipments of products arrive we hope to have a clean, well put together warehouse that's just waiting to get messed up again by a truck load of products.

Can you get some Brown Wire light sets made?

On occasion we get asked if we can get brown wire light sets made custom. We offer only 2 sets in brown wire, our ML-4-50-BRW-C and ML-4-100-BRW-C, and for some people these just don't fit the bill. So if you need brown wire sets custom made we can do it, BUT you are going to have to order upwards of 2,000 sets and wait quite a while. I know you're thinking, "What?! aren't they just lying in a warehouse somewhere?" Well the answer is no, if they were we would try our best to have them up online for purchase and then we'd drop ship them. Since this usually is not the case we have to get these sets made for us, overseas.

We wish that we could get these light sets made for us here in the states, but there is just no one making them.

Whew...that's a lot of Cacti!

So every once in a while I get a phone call that inspires me to write a blog, well...yesterday I got a call from a lady needing about 500-600 Cactus displays. This got me thinking, I should share how one might go about getting pieces like that built.

If your city, business is wanting a custom made Christmas (or any other holiday for that matter) display built then you've found the right guys to help you get your project off the ground. We represent all the major display manufacturers in the country and can find someone that can build your pieces without being way to expensive.

The first thing you have to do with designing pieces is getting a simple idea on paper. Make some sketches, even if you aren't a great artist. A terrible idea is better than no idea at all, and will give you something to work around.

Once you get that idea to us we can revise it, draw it again with lights in mind. Then we can get designs back to you. You have to play tag when working on designing a piece, because once you bend and weld the steel there is no going back!

Once the design is finalized we get in touch with our manufacturers, we get product price quotes and shipping quotes. After we get that info, we get it back to you and from there we get your pieces built.

Not such a chore when you consider you're getting a custom designed piece that no one else in the country will have.

Head over to AllAmericanChristmas.com to check our wide selection of Christmas Displays!

Musical Christmas Controllers

Since we began carrying the Outdoor Musical Christmas Controller it has slowly become the most popular Christmas light controller we have ever carried. It makes sense that this controller would become so popular; it's easy to use, plays classic Christmas music, and will last many seasons with proper care.

Our musical controller has 6 outlets, each outlet will let you plug approximately 12 sets of standard mini lights (not all end to end, but off a extension cord). The controller has 20 songs.

Siberian Style Christmas Carols

• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
• Good Christian Men Rejoice
• Angels We Have Heard On High
• We Three Kings of Orient Are
• Here We Come A-Caroling
• Joy To The World
• Deck The Halls
• O Come All Ye Faithful
• Carol of The Bells
• Twelve Days of Christmas

Rock and Roll Christmas Carols

• Jingle Bells
• Winter Wonderland
• We Wish You A Merry Christmas
• Let It Snow
• Frosty The Snowman
• Sleigh Ride
• Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
• I Saw Three Ships
• Here Comes Santa Claus
• Santa Claus is Coming To Town

The operation of this controller is simple, on the top there the main control panel. On this main panel you can turn on/off the unit, switch the different light show modes, control the song volume, choose what type of songs you want, and have a button to skip songs. The light show modes are interesting, these 3 different settings give you different lighting effects. The first is a steady on, pretty simple, no flashing, no music sync, just a steady on. The second mode is a flashing mode, this makes all the flash to the beat of the music, usually focusing on the main melody of a song the lights will flash along to that main melody. The third mode is by far the best show you can get out of this box, the different outlets all represent a different instrument or section of the song that's playing. So lets say a song has a simple drum beat, some lights will flash to just that beat, a main rhythm sound will have its own light, and the melody will have its own, and so on and so on.

Here is a video of this controller in action



Check out this controller here

--
Zach Broyles
All American Christmas Co.

Colors of Mini Lights...

We have been selling mini lights for many years and it never ceases to amaze me how often people get surprised we have colors all year around. We pride ourselves in trying to keep a stocked warehouse all year long, this is something that most companies can't compete with.

We have a huge selection of mini lights, with varying bulb spacings and bulb counts. Our spacings are 2.5, 4, 6, 8 inches and our bulb counts are 15, 20, 35, 50, 100, and 150. We have every color in the rainbow, Clear, Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Pink, Purple, Teal, Teal Blue, Multi, Frosted White, and others!

Head to our Mini Christmas Light Page to view our huge selection of products.