Repairing Christmas Displays

When All American Christmas Co. got started we mainly focused at selling lights to cities and businesses for large decorating jobs, and during the season we sold (and still do sell) countless screw in C7 and C9 bulbs for repairing large Christmas Displays. Most displays are put up late november and are burning for many hours and since incandescent bulbs have a bulb life from 2,500 or 3,000 hours their life gets eaten up pretty quick during the season. Inevitably bulbs burn out and break after being moved in and out of storage so it's a good plan to have spare bulbs in the colors you need on hand.

For the most part repairing displays be it Pole Mounted pieces, Ground mount, or building mount is fairly straight forward.

• Give any display a once over before you put power to it, any broken bulbs should be removed (wear gloves when dealing with broken glass) and make sure the cord has no cuts or breaks that could cause a short.
• After you check the bulbs and wire plug the display in, note any burned out bulbs and remove them. Adjust the wire if it's shifted to create a uniform appearance, if sockets have loosened affix them to the frame with new tape or zip ties.
• Once the displays is completely reviewed you can begin to replace the bulbs that were shot, now one caveat new Incandescent bulbs are almost always brighter and whiter (for clear anyway) than bulbs that have been up for a season or two. Some times this can create brighter spots on a display but if you need to get it up and lit it's usually not a huge deal, just be aware of it
• Always test your displays before you get on a job or hang them up because of Murphy's Law, what can go wrong will go wrong. And being able to stay on top of potential problems will help alleviate headaches down the road.

Now incandescent lights will have be repaired and replaced every season, thats the nature of the beast. Most cities are making the switch to LED bulbs. LED C7 and C9 bulbs let you use the displays you love without having to completely strip them and rewire the frame.  Both of our LED screw in bulbs use .96 watts per bulb, whereas Incandescent C7 use 5 watts and C9 use 7 so there's a tremendous savings in power consumption. LED bulbs have a bulb life rated at 50,000 hours, which is pretty long and while no one will guarantee bulbs for that long period of time LEDs will outlast old school bulbs by many many years. Screw in LEDs are also made of durable plastic so they wont shatter and their colors do not fade because the LED inside the bulb itself is making the color not the color of the plastic itself. They may have a higher up front cost but making the switch will save many man hours of repair time and save a lot of money on the power bill.

For more info on our bulbs visit www.aachristmas.com
For more info on our Christmas Displays visit www.allamericanchristmas.com

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Zach