Best place to start is probably some form of "permanent Christmas lights"
You install them along the trim of your house, like you would with traditional lights. You can then use them for all sorts of things. Flag colors for patriotic holidays. Bright pastels for spring. Christmas can be any mix of red green and white, hanukkah can be blue and white, etc
They let you start soft, with something that doesn't need xlights, just a simple controller and the lights, so you get the feel for the hardware side of things, and you canuse them all the time
I wrote a blog post[1] about how I got mine set up. My show this winter isn't very big, consisting of only a spinner (big circular pattern of pixels), megatree (big cone shaped light "tree") and the house lights, but some of my friends in the area go all out with spotlights and moving components and even pyrotechnics
Enjoyed your blog post - some great insights, solid final results and at about the right level of DIY. Could you give a specification for the LED pucks though please? The Aliexpress link is dead.
Ah yeah, sorry about that. I'll have to update the blog post.
They are sold by a variety of vendors, but generally you're gonna look for the 3-pixel 30mm pucks. They come in either cold-white or warm-white varieties, and a slew of different voltages.
You can buy a whole "kit" from the same vendor I bought my stuff from here[1], or the individual lights[2] and the tracks[3]
You can also buy similar products from some US local stores, like WasatchLights[4], YourPixelStore[5], or from Gouley[6], who appear to be the original manufacturers of these. But I've had good luck with PaulZhang's store on AliExpress, so its the one I can attest to.
You install them along the trim of your house, like you would with traditional lights. You can then use them for all sorts of things. Flag colors for patriotic holidays. Bright pastels for spring. Christmas can be any mix of red green and white, hanukkah can be blue and white, etc
They let you start soft, with something that doesn't need xlights, just a simple controller and the lights, so you get the feel for the hardware side of things, and you canuse them all the time
I wrote a blog post[1] about how I got mine set up. My show this winter isn't very big, consisting of only a spinner (big circular pattern of pixels), megatree (big cone shaped light "tree") and the house lights, but some of my friends in the area go all out with spotlights and moving components and even pyrotechnics
[1]: https://pdx.su/blog/2024-08-10-diy-permanent-xmas-lights/