Bill Collins from Saxe Gotha Presbyterian Church in Lexington, SC brings us this Christmas version of his Pay the Piper design. (this post originally posted December 2013)
They used their existing set design and added Christmas lights on top of it. They decided to go with all LED Christmas lights to avoid the hassle of having to replace broken bulbs next year. This year it took 4 people about 12 hours to completely decorate their auditorium.
They wrapped the solid tubes on stage with the 25’ C9 Multi-color strands (2 strands per tube) and wrapped the “holey” tubes with the 25’ C9 Cool white strands (1 on each of the shorter tubes and 2 on the taller center tubes). They also wrapped their drum riser and shield in Christmas lights. The bases that support their moving lights also got wrapped in 20’ C3 Multi-color strands. There were also C3 Multi-Color strands along the downstage edge of their stage and the proscenium arch was outlined with C9 Multi-Color strands. They used the long C6 multi-color strands and the long C9 multi-color strands to hang over the audience and seating area in the auditorium.
They purchased a 4’ long section of 9” box truss and a matching base plate. They then took off the garland and other greenery that was previously on it and stripped off as much of the green paint that was on it. Then they cut out a piece of plywood that would sit in the top of the section of truss and support the wreath, and then attached it to the wreath. They painted the wreath with a metallic paint to try and match the color of the truss. Then they wrapped the truss with a strand of the C3 multi-color lights.
Several sets of the strands were on dimmer packs to allow them to turn them on and off throughout the service. They didn’t dim particularly well because they were low-power drawing LED lights…but it allowed some control.
Christmas Lights Used:
5 – 20’ Multi-Color C3 strands with 50 bulbs each
2 – 70’ Multi-Color C6 strands with 200 bulbs each
2 – 12’ Multi-Color C6 strands with 50 bulbs each
22 – 25’ Multi-Color C9 strands with 25 bulbs each
5 – 100’ Multi-Color C9 strands with 100 bulbs each
8 – 25’ Cool White C9 strands with 25 bulbs each
That is a total of 1514’ of Christmas Lights with 2000 individual bulbs.
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