Copeland Christmas Blog

Why We Collect Toys For Tots

2017-10-27T01:17:00.000-04:00

This December, for every unwrapped toy donated at Copeland Christmas, our family will also contribute. Our charity of choice is Toys For Tots. We're super excited!

Here's why we donate toys and cash to a charity...

Back when we first brought the display to Palm City in 2006, visitors tried to contribute to the light bill. Back then, we used 65k incandescent lights...people assumed our power bill was high and they constantly wanted to show thanks by giving us money. We used to lie and say the electric bill only spiked nominally. We refused the money. But then we'd find $$ left on the counter or in the mailbox. Once we got a letter from a family saying they made a charitable donation in our name because they were so touched by our display. That's when we decided to partner with Toys For Tots and funnel 100% of the money to kids in Martin County.

"To be honest," says Danielle, "I am somewhat uncomfortable with collecting people's money"

"I want people to come here and see the display with zero obligation. December is our time for US TO GIVE to the community and for the community to simply receive."

That being said, we are overjoyed and humbled by the amount of toys people drop off at our house. Each year, our favorite day is when we drop off the toys at headquarters. I usually ask to peak at their staging area and I'm always overwhelmed to see tables upon tables upon tables of toys, all sorted by age.

A quick story...
Back in 2015, a van pulled up and kids started piling out. All seemed normal at first. No big deal.

Then the back hatch opened and the kids plus mom+dad started pulling dozens of toys from the van for Toys For Tots. A+ to those parents for taking their kids on a shopping spree to buy toys for less fortunate kids. They brought good toys too....like Star Wars toys and Barbies.

Another story...
One year, a family decided not to get each other Christmas gifts. Instead, they pooled their money and bought toys for tots. When they dropped off the toys at Copeland Christmas, they shed a tear because they were so joyful and fulfilled by having done what they felt was the right thing.

Throwback to 2009 Copeland Christmas

2017-10-04T23:30:00.002-04:00

Here's a few of favorite photos from the 2009 display at our old house. That house had so many good places for different scenes!

Christmas village 2015 at Copeland Christmas

2015-12-15T15:05:00.001-05:00

A little video of the lakeside Christmas village.

The Mega Tree at Copeland Christmas

2015-12-11T11:48:00.001-05:00

We love the mega tree. Let me tell ya a little about how we made it.

From January to November this is our flagpole! In December, we hang lights from the top and call it a Mega Tree.

It's a Sunsetter 20 ft Telescoping flagpole that's been cemented into the ground. During December, we take off the flag and replace the gold finial with a homemade tree topper. We used a wooden bun and coat hooks from the hardware store to make the topper. We attach a star to the top of our DIY topper and voila!

Since Christmas lights surprisingly weigh a lot, we have to secure the mega tree with guy wires.

Each strand is secured to the grass with a tent stake and zip tie.

In years past, we've done more elaborate trees, but we like this one just fine. It went up in a few hours.

This year, the mega tree has 24 strands of green LEDs. We can control each strand separately so we can make it look like it's spinning, filling up, unfilling, twirling, etc. We can also control the star separately from the tree too.

How to make north poles for a Chistmas display

2015-10-27T23:25:00.002-04:00

Here's our parts list and the steps we took to create the north poles. Over the years, we've seen many variations of this decoration...it's not something we invented ourselves. It's a fun project that takes a full weekend to complete and the results are pretty rewarding (at least for us).

Important: this project requires knowledge and understanding of wiring and electricity. We don't recommend that anyone use this writing as a tutorial to create your own north poles. That being said, we did consult a licensed electrician so our north poles are safe.

If we would have had to buy all the materials, the total project cost would have been around $300 for 10 north poles. Fortunately, we had a lot of the materials on hand so we only had to spend around $200.

First, here's the Home Depot shopping list. I think I ended up returning an unused can of expandable foam.

We also ordered ten 6 ft spt2 extension cords and ten cleat sockets from Amazon which look like this:

Here's the globes that we repurposed from another project.

Here's what we did......

Sand all the barcodes and part numbers off the 3 in pvc pipes.
Spray paint 3 inch pipes and couplers with white paint. Allow to dry overnight.
Cut the 1/2 inch pvc pipes in half.
Set the couplers aside for a while.
Lay down all 20 pipes on the floor.
Glue the small pipes inside the large pipes. Allow to dry.
We wanted all the stripes to be identical, so we made a little template that helped with the taping.
Spray the pipes with red paint after taping them to look like candy canes. Allow to dry overnight.
Lay the pipes down on the floor again.
Fish extension cords through the pipes.
Spray expandable foam inside the pipes so that the cord and small pipe are held snugly in place. Allow time to expand and cure.
Snip off the female ends and discard them.
Peel the tape off
Place couplers on the top of the pipes
Properly wire the sockets to the cords (must be done by a person with electrical knowledge)
Add a bulb, top with a globe.
Pound the rebar into the grass being careful not to hit buried lines.
Slide the north pole over the rebar.
Run an extension cord to the north pole.

Post project thoughts...

I kind of splurged by buying the precut 2 ft pipes, but it saved a lot of time by not having to measure, cut, and, sand the 8 or 10 ft pipes. Plus, they might not have fit in the SUV.
I left a lot of little steps out......for example, I couldn't find 4 inch painters tape so I had to make due with 2 inch tape and just had to do twice the taping....a pain.
I could have used red cut tape instead of the red paint....but it fades and peels in the sun. Not sure how the paint will hold up. I wonder if it will scratch off during handling.
I could have used acetone to dissolve the codes, but it took longer and came out messier on my test subject.
I could have added a clear coat....meh....
We could have probably gotten away with not painting the pipes white first. But the white covered up some of the faint leftovers of the upc codes.
Some people use multiple bulbs with different fixtures, some drill holes in the pvc and poke mini lights through them. Some people paint make the stripes differently. Some people use silicone to secure the globe. Some people use a spool of wire with vampire plugs vs repurposing the extension cords. There's so many variations of this project......
They'll be bulky to store, so I'll probably try to find a short trash can and use some kind of foam so they don't scratch up against each other.

Candyland scene made with carved styrofom

2015-10-26T22:22:00.001-04:00

So excited that the candyland scene is nearly done!! Just need to finish the rest of the room now.

Christmas Tree Decorating Tips 2015

2015-10-26T16:59:00.002-04:00

Christmas Tree Decorating Tips 2015

Ever wonder how many lights and ornaments you'll need for your Christmas tree? Just ask Google. In fact, all you need to ask is how many ornaments and autofill knows where you're headed with your question. The answer depends on how tall your tree is. Go ahead and try it.

I'd go ahead and up your ornament count if you plan on putting the tree in the middle of the room or if you'll see the back of the tree due to a mirror or rotating tree stand.

Have you ever seen a tree with very few ornaments at the top and a few at the bottom? Yep, the center is always jam packed with ornaments. Here's a tip to prevent such a tragedy.

First, unpack all your ornaments, eyeball the collection and mentally compare to the size of your tree, then begin decorating. It's so common sense but it'll help every time.

Another tip that makes your Christmas tree look like a decorator trimmed it: Add a good amount of glittery or shiny ornaments toward the tree trunk....inside the tree. They will catch the light at certain angles and make the tree look fuller and better.

Tip......buy a pack of premade bows from the wrapping paper aisle ($2 for a few dozen). Now use the bow to bundle three ball ornaments together. Do this with half of your ball ornaments. Now tie the bundles to the branches. You'll have twice the dimension since some ornaments will be singular and some will be bundled with bows.

Making Christmas Village Mountain Backdrop

2015-10-11T20:18:00.003-04:00

Today we made some more progress on the village scene. We made mountains to place behind the scene.

First, we started with a 4 x 8 ft sheet of 2 inch polystyrene insulation. We cut a two foot section of it and carved it up with the sculpting tool from Hot Wire Foam Factory (not sponsored).

Next, we carved up a few pieces of one inch polystyrene, sanded all the pieces with very gritty sandpaper, and stood it all up to see how it would look. Looks good.

Next we painted it dark brown with inexpensive acrylic craft paint and let it dry.

Then we used a dry paint brush to paint on white paint. We googled a few mountain images to see where we thought the snow might naturally fall and we kept painting till we thought it was done.

I went back in with a bit of black paint on the closest hill to add a but more dimension. Looks good!

Making a mini Christmas Village Using Styrofoam

2015-09-27T16:36:00.000-04:00

Today I made the styrofoam base for the Candyland village! Why does it have to be 90 degrees here?

I started out with three 4x8 sheets of polystyrene insulation from Lowes. I used a utility knife to cut out a bunch of odd shapes, then I stacked the shapes together with wooden BBQ skewers.

Next, I used a cool tool from Hot Wire Foam Factory called a sculpting tool to cut through the styrofoam. When you turn it on, the wire heats up and lets you slice right though styrofoam. I love it. You can even bend the wire into different shapes. This is my third hot knife and I definitely like this one the best. They didn't pay me to say this.

Disclaimer: I'm no artist. All the sculpting was done haphazardly and awkwardly. But it looks really good. I think this is one of those projects which you literally can't mess up. The messier the better. And when I painted the ice with blue paint, I didn't know what I was doing.....I just painted any of the recessed areas and left the closest areas white. No real science here either.

Once the sculpting was done, I took apart all the pieces and glued them together. I thoroughly researched what type of glue to use and I settled on Glidden Gripper. And they didn't pay me either.

It was pretty fun to carve little stairs into the snow mountains and to visualize where all the little lighted gingerbread houses will be placed.

I added a few heavy jugs to the top of the mountains so the glue would really grip. Then I started painting the ice with blue acrylic paint. I used whatever old paint and brushes I had on-hand.

I must say, I love all you crafters who post videos to Youtube. I never would have thought to carve stairs and paint ice unless I had seen it on the internet.

Once the base was done, I decided to make a frozen pond. I sculpted out a shallow hole, painted it blue, then poured in some clear two part epoxy.

I knew I wanted to make frozen water, so I once again turned to Youtube. This was a few days ago.

I found a bunch of methods so I tried three out. Clear silicone, mod podge, epoxy. I poured the mod podge way too thick. After 5 days it was still too gooey. The caulk never dried at all, so maybe I had a bad tube. The epoxy worked super awesome.

The epoxy I used is leftover from a tiki project we did a few years back. We used it to coat a wooden bar that we made for the backyard. I remember it being pretty expensive so we saved it hoping to make use of it someday. It's from FiberGlass Coating, Inc. here in Florida.

It's supposed to dry perfectly clear, but I think it has a bit of a brown tinge. Once I add skaters and some flaky fake snow, it will look great!

I could have gotten super picky about this project and really made everything perfect. But I'm happy I decided to be content with not being super perfectionist about this.

Next step: I got some fiber optic hair extensions on Amazon for a few bucks. Yes I just said that. I'm going to see if I can incorporate those into the snow somehow. Then, I'll run some RGB light tapes along the back and add a few blue icicle lights to give it some dimension. Then I'll add more mountains to the back and I'll be DONE!

Making Faux Gumdrops for the Mini Christmas Village

2015-09-26T21:02:00.000-04:00

I made some faux gumdrops for the mini Christmas village this year. They turned out really good and I'm super excited to see them in what I call the "Candyland section" of the village display. Here's a pic from the 2010 display. We lay down a styrofoam base, then add houses and accessories. Then we add snow.

Some folks might use real gumdrops for this, but all the lights get pretty warm and I don't want a sticky soup melting in my house. Plus, I cannot store really candy...that would be begging for a rat and bug infestation.

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I used two ice cube trays, plaster of paris, acrylic paint, clear glitter, and sewing pins. It couldn't be easier and it definitely brought out my crafty side.

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I mixed the plaster of paris per the instructions. I filled up the trays and let them sit overnight.

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One of the funnest parts of the project was the EXPERIMENTATION at the beginning. Before I made the entire batch of gumdrops, I made a few, painted them, then glittered them to make sure I would like them. I quickly realized a few things.

First, filling the trays completely with POP, made the gumdrops a bit too large for what I want. So, I decided to only fill the trays 50%.

Next, it was a pain to paint each one, then set it to dry without smearing the paint off. So, I decided to try sticking a toothpick into each gumdrop after the pop set for about 15 minutes. I was really happy with the toothpick, but I wanted something that wouldn't ruin my styrofoam. Safety pins!!! I'm pretty proud I thought of this. It helped me paint and glitter them in a snap. Plus, the tiny little pinhole won't be noticeable in the styrofoam.

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I used super inexpensive acrylic paint from Walmart that I already had. I mixed up different tones and had fun with it.

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I think I'll use them to form little fences and borders around the village. I guess I could make gumdrop trees too.

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Making the North Poles

2015-08-26T17:19:00.002-04:00

Today, as we wait to see if tropical storm Erika turns into a hurricane, I did some more work on the new north poles. Over the years, we've remade them a few times. Each time they get better and we get more efficient at remaking them. This year, I decided to paint them instead of wrapping them in red duct tape. Not sure if this will be better or worse than duct tape, but I guess we'll see how they look a year from now.

Over the past few weeks, we sanded off the letters, added cords, then painted them white with Krylon. Today, I wrapped them in two pieces of tape, then painted. I ended up using two cans of white and only one can of red. I'm so proud of my little template that I used so all my stripes would be even. It's just a folded up piece of paper that I taped to the top of each pipe,

I couldn't find painters tape that was wide enough, so I had to add two rows of tape. Double the work....ugh.

I know I shouldn't be painting in 100% humidity here in FL. It was pouring as I did this. But in summer here, it rains every afternoon, so no time for perfect condition painting.

I guess I'll wait overnight to let them dry, then I'll remove the tape. The painting is the easiest part!

2015 Mega Tree with Light-O-Rama

2015-08-13T11:49:00.004-04:00

John and I decided to resurrect the mega tree for the 2015 Copeland Christmas display! We'll add 12 strands of mini lights to this flagpole. The base diameter should be 15-20 ft. We'll add a star topper and then hook all the lights into a Light-O-Rama controller so the lights can be controlled by our home computer via cat5e cables.

We had to get the flagpole (20 ft sunsetter) from the other house. Once it was at our new house, we settled on this spot. It's kinda close to the the street, but it's really the only area of open grass that we have.

John tested it out. I think it's extendeed to 10 feet here. For the show, we'll extend it to 15 ft.

The nxt step was to check over all the parts to see what can be reused and what needs to be rebuilt. The tree topper (built in 2008 I think) disintegrated in our hands, so we had to rebuild that first.

It's made of a wood bun (that what's it's called at Lowes) and 12 metal coat hooks. The top has some kind of plumbing flange and a large bolt. It's a very simple design that we adapted from something we saw online years ago.

I disassembled the old topper, bought a new bun, and one replacement hook. I drilled pilot holes for each screw, then screwed in the hooks. Couldn't be simpler. Coast was around $10.

I was hoping to put some of my 6th grade protractor skills to use. Yes, I've had that protractor since 6th grade and it's almost 25 years old! The bun already had all the correct angles notched into it. So, I verified all angles were perfect, then continued. Oh well.

I primed it with two coats of Krylon outdoor paint for some added protection against our wet, humid weather. Black will disappear into the night when the lights are on.

Next step was to clean all the rust stains off the flagpole. This is the toughest part. Neither of our rust removers are working. I wish Rustaid was still around. Not sure what we'll do about the rust. Maybe nothing. The rust stains (orange) are from the well water (sprinklers) at the old house.

The next step will be to dig the hole and set the flagpole in concrete. I bought a groundsleeve kit from sunsetter because they said that's what I'll need. So far, cost for this year has been $40. Not bad :)

Rotating Christmas Tree in Fast Motion

2014-01-13T13:08:00.001-05:00

We tore down all the Christmas stuff last week. It feels so good to have a clean house again!!!! Christmas 2014, here we come!!

Loving the new new GoPro. Here's the teardown process (living room and master bedroom). Thanks to Mom, Matthew, John for helping.

Copeland Christmas on Social Media

2013-12-16T10:29:00.005-05:00

It's been forever since we updated this blog. These days, we update our facebook and Instagram much more frequently.

https://www.facebook.com/CopelandChristmas1
http://instagram.com/CopelandChristmas

Wizard of Oz Christmas Weath

2013-10-12T20:55:00.001-04:00

Today, my friends came over to help with setting up the Wizard of Oz Weath. We love it!

In years past, the Wizard of Oz stuff was on a small ruby red tree (2008 and 2009).

This year, we placed the weath near the front door and I think we'll add one of those space heaters that looks like an old fashioned wood stove. It'll be a great little nook on that awkward little wall. :)

Earlier this year, I made a vision board for the wreath. I know it sounds weird, but I have a habit of pasting a bunch of pics on a blank PowerPoint page just to see how I might like the concept. I liked this concept, so we made it happen.

The lights are Kurt Adler and the dolls are Annalee. Each year, John's surprised me with a few of the Annalees from the Wizard of Oz collection. I just love them!

First Themed Christmas Tree of the 2013 Copeland Christmas Display

2013-09-09T23:47:00.001-04:00

Today, I decorated the new woodlands themed Christmas tree. It's adorable so far. I think I'd like to place it in a galvanized pot then on a tree skirt. I have lots of extra jute ribbon, so maybe I can use that for the gifts under the tree. I think this tree will probably end up in our bedroom or on the porch.

I just love all the woodsy elements of this tree. Now I just need to find my pine cone and gnome ornaments. I saw a cute diy ornament on Pinterest...you hang a tag from the house key of your first home. The tag says "our first home" and lists the address. I think I'm going to do this and hang it on this tree.

I'm really happy we were able to use this custom wall hanging as the tree topper. I hot glued it to the pipe from the ribbon roll. Then I hot glued the squirrels to the wood. It's cute.

Laser Stars Projector Light Show - Ordered

2013-04-10T12:35:00.000-04:00

We just ordered a Laser Stars Projector Light Show! I'm so excited!

2013 Planet Christmas (Mini) Convention

2013-03-23T17:24:00.001-04:00

2013PlanetChristmasMini, a photo by ladybugfalcon on Flickr.

John and I are up in Celebration, FL this weekend for a mini convention called "Florida Planet Christmas Mini Convention." We are learning about the future of Christmas light customization...DMX and RBG devices. These two technologies allow users to control millions of colors at the pixel level. Imagine making every bulb a different color! Then imagine fading all those colors slowly into other colors! Imagine violet, peach, aqua lights! That's where we are heading and we're proud to be among pioneers of this great industry. We even gave a small presentation about photographing your Christmas lights. Download the file.

We also learned a few software tips, like "paste to foreground" in the software. I realized I need to download the latest version of the LOR software and it's only about $20 (I thought it would be $100).

We learned about adding a new element to the display....water. We learned how to set up a DIY mini version of the fountains at Bellagio. Well, maybe not that fancy.

We won a raffle!...$140! That will almost pay for one of hotel nights :)

Electrical Upgrade at Copeland Christmas

2013-02-17T09:05:00.001-05:00

Over the past few days, we've had an electrician here at Copeland Christmas upgrading our system. He had to begin at the existing breaker panel. Then, he ran lines from the main breaker panel through the roof. Of course everything is being done "to code" so ran the lines inside conduit.

All those ceiling lines come out the eave, down the side of the house and into a brand new 125 amp subpanel (the large gray box). Then, Richie installed 6 new quad outlets for our Light-O-Rama boxes.

In the garage, we asked for several new outlets on each side of the garage. They look pretty good.

We couldn't be more excited and highly recommend this local guy Richie Neu (Palm City).

Next week, Richie is coming back to give us a few more outlets around the exterior, he's gong to hard wire the boat lift motor, and he'll clean up some exposed wires the previous home owner left us. We just love all this new power!

2013 Easter Decorations

2013-02-17T08:44:00.001-05:00

I know it's way too early to set up for Eatser, but I did anyway. :)

I just love how these snowy Christmas Trees can be left out all year long! We took off the silver Foxes from Christmas and added glitter carrots and glitter easter eggs and they are instantly Eastery. I got a few new things at Pier 1 this year (which goes against my usual rule of only buying holiday decorations after the holiday on clearance).

2013 Display Theme Ideas

2012-12-31T10:50:00.001-05:00

I've been toying with the idea of having the 2013 garage display theme be ice. That's a pretty broad theme, so I can hopefully refine it a bit more in the upcoming months. I really like carving those 4x8 sheets of polystyrene. I'de love to have icicles made of styrofoam and lights drip off the roof. We could do a garage backdrop that's a myriad of teal, blue, white, and navy. The inside of the house can be traditional Christmas colors...red, green, gold, silver. And inside, I think I'd like to set up the Disney Village set.

In years past, we've done themes such as "Night before Christmas", "Christmas Caroling", "Santas Workshop" etc in the garage. So, this year, I'd like to use blue and white LED bulbs, black lights, and soft pink floods to illuminate the scenes and make them look frosty.

I pulled some images from my "Christmas Inspiration" folder (which is a catalog of about 5000 images). Here are a few that inspire me.

I especially love the hanging penguin display. I think this is exactly what we need in the garage.

2013 Wreath Project

2012-12-31T10:18:00.001-05:00

I decided to bring back the Wizard of Oz Annalees for the 2013 display! I'll do some tiny blue gingham bows again, and also one large bow. I like white lights. I'm still not sure how to bring in the yellow brick road or the Emerald City, but I feel close to solving that dilemma. I think all the supplies should be pretty easy to find. Yay!

Big Bows for the 2013 Display

2012-12-29T11:29:00.000-05:00

Can't wait to see these big Bows on the dock posts next year! Also got a bunch of extra wide jute ribbon for a themed Christmas tree.

New Stuff for 2013 Display

2012-12-29T11:25:00.001-05:00

We picked up this piece. For about 75% off! Can't wait to see it hung in the dining room next year!

Tropical tree ideas

2012-05-07T21:07:00.000-04:00

Thanks
Danielle

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