Let's talk about cardboard Christmas houses and accessories

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PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 2:12 pm 
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Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2011 7:59 pm
Posts: 128
Location: Long Beach, CA
Thanks, Maria. You have an impressive setup. Raising the houses on blocks (checkers or something else) sounds like a good idea. And I can make the new ones with holes on the bottom (I think). Would also like to know how linzertorte does his with the house removable from the base. Thanks so much for all your help--this site is a real help.


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:35 am 
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Joined: Fri Sep 16, 2011 7:32 pm
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In case you missed it--and don't laugh--wink wink--this really works
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=80


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 6:14 pm 
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Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2011 7:59 pm
Posts: 128
Location: Long Beach, CA
This isn't really about how I illuminate my houses now, but I thought you would be interested in this story about lighting
cardboard houses during World War II. My husband, who was born in 1935, remembers his family's Christmas houses at least by the time he was 5 years old, which would have been in 1940. They had the standard 8-bulb string of Christmas lights, but when the war started, his parents informed him that they couldn't keep the Christmas lights on as long as usual, because it wouldn't be possible to replace the bulbs until after the war. He was interested in electricity and so he figured out a solution. He took the 8-light strand and wired a 9th light into it, figuring that this would extend the life of the bulbs even though (and because) it reduced the amount of light produced by each bulb. (What were his parents thinking, letting an 8-year-old experiment like that? They were not technically savvy and couldn't have supervised him.) It worked, of course, and they enjoyed their lighted Christmas houses without interruption until more light bulbs became available.
He's now working on developing for me a strand of LED lights that will have two or three LEDs close together but a foot apart from the next set of LEDs, etc., so that I can illuminate our putzes without danger of poking a hole through doors or windows (now that I've repaired the ones that he poked holes through when he was a child.) The LED strands will be wonderful because the ones we're choosing have small flat (not pointed) wide-angle plastic bulbs that don't heat up and use very little electricity. It's just been impossible to find the three-bulb-then-12 inches-between-bulb clusters that I'd like.


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2020 10:39 am 
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Joined: Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:29 am
Posts: 288
Hello fellow collector's. The problem in lighting these houses goes back to their inception. Size, wires, hiding wires, bulb replacement etc. I've come up with a solution. I have two friends that design instruments that go up into space. I proposed to them, separately, to design and build me a prototype of dependent lights (no wires), LED light, REMOTE CONTROLLED with a simple mounting flange that slips over the hole in back. These well make me very happy just because of the ease of use. I'll post pictures when I receive the first prototypes. I really didn't what to post this yet due to patient pending issues if you know what I mean.


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2020 1:19 pm 
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Joined: Sat Sep 10, 2011 6:46 pm
Posts: 2249
Pete...
PLEASE keep us informed as to the development of the lighting system...it sounds like a solution...and yes...gotta protect the patent and marketing rights...
Howard...

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Note: To ask a question, sign up for our "Christmas Times" newsletter, or learn how
to apply for membership to this forum, please visit our Contact page.


Note: All content on this forum is Copyright (c) 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 by Paul D. Race
and by the posters who have contributed specific content. All material is for your personal use only. No content
or plans may be republished or sold, nor may any plans be used to make products to sell without prior written
permission from Paul D. Race and the individual who contributed the content or plan in question.
For permissions or for questions about this policy, please contact us using our Contact page.



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