Resources

There's a ton of resources on the internet for the many different subtopics within "Christmas lighting" and one can quickly get lost in them. Thus, I've collected the most helpful resources below. Note that, just like everything else in this blog, these are primarily pertinent to my display and way of working; they may or may not be helpful to you, depending on your approach.

Overview

  • AusChristmasLighting 101 Manual - This forum post contains links to a PDF "Intro to Christmas Lighting" and a wiki summary; you have to create a user account in order to download the PDF. However, I would strongly recommend you do so; the PDF is a great overview and introduces terminology, basic configurations, and various considerations. While it doesn't provide all the answers, it turns many of the unknown unknowns about this hobby into known unknowns.

YouTube

  • Canispater Christmas - one of the most referred individual YouTubers on the topic. Great coverage of topics, approachable personality and style.
  • xLights - Very in-depth discussions and presentations by users/developers on xLights. Generally in the format of recorded one-hour Zoom presentations + question/answer section
  • Virtual Christmas Summit - Recorded screencasts about all sorts of topics around Christmas displays, also including specialty topics like filming, FM broadcasting, etc.

Forums

  • AusChristmasLighting - probably the richest community on the full spectrum, from xLights (some of the developers are members) to props to electrical to show-off videos
  • Do it yourself Christmas - next biggest group, seems to cover a wider range of stuff, just not as deep

Modeling

  • Sketchup Pro - Worth it to get a trial version if you want to do 3-D modeling

Vendors

Lights

  • Ray Wu's Store on Aliexpress - Everyone loves this store. I don't fully get it, but your mileage may vary. I think it's because most of the things you'll need are contained within.

Props

  • HolidayCoro - Mainly corrugated plastic mounts for lights, though there are mounting strips and pixel controllers also
  • Boysoco Studio - Wider variety of props at what seems to be good prices; I'm planning on getting most of mine here.
  • Christmas Light Show - "More Mega-tree parts than anyone!"

Sequences