2009 was our second year of synchronized Christmas lights.  We used most of the elements from 2009 except the candy canes, because we ran out of channels with the new elements.

There were 8 lit wreaths, 8 sections of shrubs, 8 mini trees, four little shrubs and two 10' 12 slice megatrees, all in clear mini lights.  The Japanese Magnolia was wrapped in clear, red and green minis.  The birch had clear, red and green running straight up the three trunks (because we didn't want to spend a day attempting to duplicate the flower-like shape we accidentally achieved last year.)  This time it reminded me of asparagus stalks when just the green were on.  There were also four 6' trees with clear, red and blue lights, plus a 12' 45 slice megatree using assorted sizes of white, red and green LEDs.

Altogether there were 21,176 lights using at most about 4 hairdryer's worth of electricity for the moments when everything was turned on (about 7600 watts).  128 channels of Light-O-Rama controlled it all, and a Ramsey FM25B transmitter was broadcasting at 92.7 MHz through a homemade folded dipole antenna in the attic.

Set up started in early November, and the show was up and running with three songs on December 4th, sans the large tree on the right. That tree and a forth song were finished by the 23rd.  The show used 128 channels of Light-O-Rama computer control, and the light count was 21,176.  The display used about 7600 watts max, but the average was much less because the lights spend more time off than on.  It cost $30 to run the show for the entire season.

The playlist:

• Jingle Bells - Denver and the Mile High Orchestra
• Siberian Sleigh Ride - TSO
• Music Box Dancer - DJ Schwede
• Joy To The World - Go Fish