Cross

The cross, fully lit up. It contains 3 channels of clear lights and one of blue LED’s.

In 2006, we decided we needed a cross in the display. After all we may be celebrating the birth of Jesus, but it was His death and resurrection that is really the important thing.

Our 2006 computer channel layout just happened to have four unused channels available, so we decided to allocate all of them to the new cross. The cross is wired up with 150 clear mini lights in three different circuits, every third bulb on the same circuit. This allows some interesting ‘chasing’ effects to be done with the computer control. For the fourth channel, we decided to use a string of bright blue LED lights. They complement the clear bulbs, and add a completely different look to the cross (and at the time, our display, since we didn’t use many LED’s yet). Once we got it wired up and ran some tests, we were extremely pleased with the look.

Two more configurations of the cross: One all-clear, the other all-blue.

For the actual construction of the cross, We have to thank Dave, a friend Tim met on the PlanetChristmas forums. Tim designed the cross, purchased the metal rod, and cut the pieces to size. Dave took the pieces and a diagram, and welded it up for us, and did an excellent job. Once that was completed, we sprayed it black and attached the lights as described above with wireframe lighting clips.

The cross helps add a little more religious flavor to the “Toyland” section of our display. We sometimes will also pull the cross back out of storage around Easter time, displaying it with the blue lights lit in the days leading to Easter, and then with all the white lights lit on Easter Sunday.