Patriotic Holiday Lighting

The term "Christmas lights" typically conjures up images of large pine trees lit up with miniature lights and houses lined with bulbs and icicle light sets, but we here at All American Christmas Co. think of "Christmas lights" as a label for a style of product and not a specific seasonal item. Since July 4th and local elections are in full swing we thought we'd do a write up on how lights and strings could be used to decorate for patriotic events and holidays.

Lighting for these type of holidays is really pretty simple! Mini lights are probably the easiest way to decorate, we offer Red, White (Clear if you want to be technical), and Blue lights on white wire. We currently don't offer a pre made Red, White, and Blue mini lights string with all the different color bulbs, but with a little patience you can make them pretty easy! Mini lights can be strung around tables, windows, doors, a porch, anywhere you can attach/hang them!

Led's come in a variety of styles that would look great for a patriotic party/even as well! These Star shaped LEDs look great and would be perfect for decorating. LED sets are great for use year after year, they last up to 50,000 hours and bulbs are incredibly hard to damage! Our battery powered LED sets are great for table decorations, or for lighting outdoors where there may be no immediate power sources. Battery powered LED sets last 9 times longer (if not more) than mini light battery powered sets!

Our Starlight spheres have a patriotic option as well, we have a 7.5' Starlight Sphere with a American flag theme we also have standard Spheres which you could hang together for a great look on your porch or hanging from the ceiling. You can mix and match sizes and colors for a great staggered effect. Spheres have a separate string for hanging so as long as you can find a hook of some sort they hang super easy!

Be sure to visit the site www.aachristmas.com and check out all the great products we have!

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Zach

How to and Product Info videos

We are currently working on developing videos of products and step by step how to's on making custom products we explain so often over the phone. Seeing a video of a controller or specialty product in action speaks louder than words on a page Just being able to see how simple some of the products are to use will, hopefully, instill confidence if purchases of that product. We want to showcase our chasing controllers, our musical controllers, chasing mini lights, twinkle lights, repair and testers, projector, and other specialty products.

For our how to videos we want to show to set up products properly, how to make custom items, how to modify products for different uses. We have years of experience of hands on use with our products and the boss has years of experience with professional installation of everything from mini lights to gigantic commercial decorations. So we hope we can offer some insight into how to make you're light strings and projects come to life with ease.

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Zach

Terminating a C7 or C9 light string

We get calls, quite often actually, about how to end a light string without a plug. There are a few main ways to seal off the end of a light string, Electrical Tape, Liquid Electrical Tape/Insulation, or Heat shrink.

Electrical tape is the most convenient and fastest but sometimes in the weather it can shrink and unravel if not applied properly.

• Always Cut Electrical Tape - Use scissors or a knife to cut your tape, pulling/tearing the tape stretches it and will lead to it shrinking in the weather
• Separate both wires and wrap individually, then together. You don't want to risk a short across the exposed wires.
• Wrap tightly, but again, do not stretch the electrical tape.

Liquid Electrical Tape/Insulation is a great alternative. You can paint, or dip the end of the wires into the can. Be sure to follow all the instructions on the can/container! For better results we recommended doing multiple coats, but be sure to let each coat dry in between applications.

Heat Shrink is a personal favorite of mine. It's safe, long lasting, and looks great. Be sure to use the proper size, in my experience the small the better.

• Separate the wires and heat shrink individually. Leave excess on the end so that the end of the wires do not touch. I leave enough to fold over after first shrink process
• Hit it with a heat gun for a few seconds
  
• Fold the ends of the excess heat shrink down after you shrink it onto the wires
• Slip a larger piece of heat shrink over both wires, making sure you keep the folded heat shrink down
• Hit it with heat gun and you should have a nice looking, well protected tip of your wire.

I hope this gives some insight as to how we make custom light strings and how to properly terminate a C7 or C9 Stringer.
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Zach

Easter Lights

Easter is April 4th this year so for those of us that go all out with the decorations there is just a little under a month left to get your decorations. We carry a selection of yard displays and lights that are perfect for the easter holiday. Our displays feature easter bunnies, eggs, flowers, Happy Easter signs, but we also carry many religious displays that would be perfect for decorating a church or home for this holiday. We have a selection of Crosses that would be perfect for the Easter holiday.

Many of our opaque (painted) C7 and C9 bulbs have a soft glow that's perfect for decorating; the pink, purple, teal bulbs have a very pastel appearance. String these bulbs on white wire for a very festive look. Or use C9 bulbs on a green wire with a large spacing and place them on your lawn to look like hidden easter eggs. The only limit to how one can decorate is ones imagination.

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Zach

Party and Prom lighting!

Spring is on it's way and now isn't really the time were most people think to themselves, "I should put up some Christmas lights!" But if you look around this time of year "Christmas" lights are all around us, we see them at restaurants, bars, at parties, in shops, and for specials events an occasions. High School Proms are a great place for hanging lights, you can light table center pieces, lighting around windows, light trees, hang (or make) swag lights for the ceiling.

Creating a ceiling full of light strings is very popular for Proms, Weddings, and other Special Events. To get an idea of how many light strings you'll need you need to know the Length of the room, the Width of the room, approximately how high the ceilings are, and how far apart you want to space your lights. Typically you want to space your swags 3' to 5' apart, it sounds nice to really keep your strings close but that increases your number of strings and sometimes be too much visually. You'll want to use a bulb spacing of 4"-6", using longer spacings help you get more feet per string and less power sources. Mini lights can typically only do 3 sets end to end, so keep that in mind. We always recommend using our bare 18 gauge wire and quick-connect plugs to create your own custom power strips that you can run along a side wall to provide power for your strings. And remember, going Green with LED lights can let you easily decorate a large space with less power. LED lights use less than 20% of the power of your typical Mini lights, so you can connect more sets together and run less power cords for a cleaner look.

The sky is the limit with decorating for any occasion, never limit yourself to just mini lights. Sphere lights add an extra bit of dimension to your lighting. Twiggy or Rice lights are small lights that are great to hide in greenery. Flicker flames are a great way to simulate a candle, without the fire hazard! The options are endless.

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Zach
American Christmas Co.