Our Live Christmas/Halloween Display webcam website.

[ElfinErv]

I saw a giant hand ..creepy

[Holidaycheer]

Haha

[ElfinErv]

how many building do you think you have total?

[Holidaycheer]

how many building do you think you have total?

In this display alone I would say roughly 25-30 buildings, and who knows how many other pieces....Also VIEW CHANGE:) now I have a different part of the village up.

[ElfinErv]

ok going to look

[Holidaycheer]

I am going to turn the room light off so you can see how nice the fiber optic house actually is

[ElfinErv]

looks neat with room lights off

[ElfinErv]

that building and tree have a lot of lights, did they come as a set?

[Holidaycheer]

yep, I actually added a few extra strands to it though.

[ElfinErv]

looks perfect I think, I like a lot of lights

[Holidaycheer]

Thanks! me too!

[ElfinErv]

hows it going...any transformer, motor, light failures?

[Holidaycheer]

so far so good, checking outside lights tonight. inflatables are doing good. everything has gone smoothly so far. had the controls turned on <on the website> for about 30 mins today worked pretty well.

[Holidaycheer]

Just a small simple update: Tons of light bulbs are blown haha going to be spending a while replacing, inflatables are standing tall and proud no issues there:grinn:

[ElfinErv]

what happened power surge? :smokin:



Just a small simple update: Tons of light bulbs are blown haha going to be spending a while replacing, inflatables are standing tall and proud no issues there:grinn:

[Holidaycheer]

Nope, just from last year I suppose.... I forgot to clarify I was talking about the lights for the outside of the house:) not the lights in the village:)

[ElfinErv]

anything new today?

[Holidaycheer]

nothing new in the display inside, been focusing on the outside stuff:)

[Holidaycheer]

So far outside, Blew two fuses and a breaker.....Whooops:)

[ElfinErv]

lol :grinn:



So far outside, Blew two fuses and a breaker.....Whooops:)

[Holidaycheer]

Not much been going on lately due to the fact that I have a cold and have not had the energy. getting better everyday though, and hopefully some more stuff soon.

[ElfinErv]

okie dokie...get well soon

[Christy Carol]

Cant be sick at Christmas! Get better now and worry about the rest when you feel up to it.

[ElfinErv]

wondered why the cam went dark :smokin:

[Christy Carol]

He turned it off for the night. Or did you do it?

[ElfinErv]

I didn't do it...did you do it? :smokin:



He turned it off for the night. Or did you do it?

[Holidaycheer]

It's on now. :) might move it to the window for tomorrows snow fall. We are already under a winter snow watch, to my surprise one of the isolated areas where they expect 3 to 4 inches is where we live:) so with any luck you will see some snow fall:)

[Christy Carol]

wasnt me Erv!

Snow in Texas. Doggone it! They arent saying that for us. I think its gonna go up and around us.

[Christy Carol]

Oh wait! Ed the head just said SNOW next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ElfinErv]

better setup a snow cam



It's on now. :) might move it to the window for tomorrows snow fall. We are already under a winter snow watch, to my surprise one of the isolated areas where they expect 3 to 4 inches is where we live:) so with any luck you will see some snow fall:)

[Holidaycheer]

I will have the snow cam up and running tomorrow. With any luck we will get some good size flakes....if any at all....They moved us up to 100% precip tomorrow with it turning from rain to snow around 8 am and then lasting snow all day and most of the night....They are predicting 1 to 2 inches still...but with areas of 3-4... So keep your eyes peeled on the website tomorrow.

[Christy Carol]

I'm not trying to be nosey (even though I have your address LOL!!) but I take it you are in the more northern, central area? I saw on our news tonight that seems to be the best coverage area tomorrow. You are so lucky. And it give me hope because it Texas is gonna see snow we cant be too far behind.

[Holidaycheer]

We are right near Houston, a suburb of Houston really. We are getting the snow because of all the gulf moisture getting nailed by this arctic mass. The town I use to live in that is Central texas is actually supposed to receive less snow than us. But I am not fully taking these forecasters for at their word.

[Holidaycheer]

Haha and nosey? we have webcams of our house online almost 24/7 365 haha...

[Christy Carol]

LOL!! I guess that was silly of me!

Really? That far south? But I can believe it. The last one we got was worse the further south you were and luckily I was in far southern Arkie at the time. Northern Arkie hardly got anything.

[ElfinErv]

everything is big in Texas ... even the snowflakes


I will have the snow cam up and running tomorrow. With any luck we will get some good size flakes....if any at all....They moved us up to 100% precip tomorrow with it turning from rain to snow around 8 am and then lasting snow all day and most of the night....They are predicting 1 to 2 inches still...but with areas of 3-4... So keep your eyes peeled on the website tomorrow.

[Holidaycheer]

HAHA that everything is bigger thing is so not true, except for maybe the egos of the residents.

[ElfinErv]

:D


HAHA that everything is bigger thing is so not true, except for maybe the egos of the residents.

[Holidaycheer]

so far we are getting snow on and off. not much is sticking yet, but the arctic air isn't here yet so we should get more sticking later this afternoon.

[ElfinErv]

yea you folks made the news up here, also saw a lot of Tweets from Texans bragging about the snow

[Christy Carol]

Yeah it was all over the news here too. I sure wish that storm had went a little further to the north. Say right over SE Arkie?

[ElfinErv]

yea maybe next week

[Christy Carol]

sure hope so

[ElfinErv]

do you even own a shovel?

:1smiley015:

[Holidaycheer]

Haha, all this did was remind me of how much I want to live up north again with real snow.

[Holidaycheer]

NEW VIEW AND TRAIN IS ON AND GOING AROUND....until the batteries die haha.

[Holidaycheer]

The official HC Tree goes up today.... Love the smell of Fraser Firs

[ElfinErv]

time to consider nuclear power



NEW VIEW AND TRAIN IS ON AND GOING AROUND....until the batteries die haha.

[Holidaycheer]

::huh::...I tried that with the last one...But it ended up back in 1985.

[ElfinErv]

just took a look...spooky when the room lights are off and just the building lights are on

[Merry]

Arrggg! Flippin' net is slower than cold molasses going uphill in January this morning. We get this from time to time, despite the face we're paying for high speed. :mad:

I'll try looking at the site again later.

[ElfinErv]

love the position of the cam today

[Holidaycheer]

Thanks erv....Yeah sorry merry sage....our website isn't nice when internet is slow:)

[Holidaycheer]

I'm rather shocked, all these christmas fanatics on here and only 1 letter has been written to santa so far

[Jinglebelle]

Only 1!!?? :omg:

[Holidaycheer]

:zzz:yep only 1

[ElfinErv]

methinks many have been too naughty this year



I'm rather shocked, all these christmas fanatics on here and only 1 letter has been written to santa so far

[Holidaycheer]

I think you may be right..for you though I can say, Eggnog be on it's way:)

[ElfinErv]

:crazyeyes:

[Holidaycheer]

New cam up. From West virginia it's live right now! Snow storm cam.

Edit: his cam is down at the moment his server was at a crawl so he is doing some work on it. Should be back on in a bit.

[Holidaycheer]

The cam is back up and running now.

[ElfinErv]

cool, very very snowy ;)

[Holidaycheer]

Yeah said they are supposed to get it until tomorrow morning.
will be interesting to see how it progresses

[Teresa]

I don't know what I am doing wrong but I still can't get it HolidayCheer! I clicked on the website you had on your post!!

[Holidaycheer]

What does it do when you click the link?

[ElfinErv]

site not working for me today

[Holidaycheer]

site not working for me today

at all or just the stream? I had the encoder off for a while earlier.:grinn:

[ElfinErv]

oh thats what it was



at all or just the stream? I had the encoder off for a while earlier.:grinn:

[Holidaycheer]

Cam is currently live and hopefully we will catch a glimpse of the big guy!

[ElfinErv]

awesome

[Holidaycheer]

Cam will be moving over to the fish tank soon

[Teresa]

HolidayCheer I still get no picture when I go to that site. It says Controls are Currently Disabled. :(

[ElfinErv]

I'm seeing the Christmas village and still hear Christmas music

[ElfinErv]

oh we can watch the piranha dining on live mice :smokin:



Cam will be moving over to the fish tank soon

[ChasNole]

I am so ready for the return of the Halloween cam!

[ElfinErv]

lol :hallo_p_kitty:



I am so ready for the return of the Halloween cam!

[ChasNole]

Holidaycheer....I am anxiously awaiting the return!!!! ;)

[Christy Carol]

I know! Where has he been?

[Merry]

Like Erv, he's gone AWOL. It's very disconcerting. I hope people are ok.

[sdkluger]

I see Erv on FB every now and then.

[Merry]

I see Erv on FB every now and then.

Do you? Say hello to him for me. :1smiley008:

[Holidaycheer]

My triumphant return:) Sorry, I have been swamped lately with work, our oldest just started school this year and the little one has been growing and growing:) We also bought a new house, so we have been super busy:) But don't worry, The cams will be back:)

[Merry]

My triumphant return:) Sorry, I have been swamped lately with work, our oldest just started school this year and the little one has been growing and growing:) We also bought a new house, so we have been super busy:) But don't worry, The cams will be back:)


:confetti::confetti: Welcome back.

[Christy Carol]

YAY!! You're back! I cant wait to blow up Frank again this year!!

[ChasNole]

Awesome! Welcome Back!

[Holidaycheer]

Thinking of over hauling the site. Needs some work, just need to find the time. ::leglamp::

[Holidaycheer]

Anyone have any ideas on things they would possibly like to see on the website this year?

[Jinglebelle]

Did you have a train last year? That would be cool =D

[Holidaycheer]

Yep we had a train:) We will again this year as well. Still working on how to stream movies to the site efficiently for everyone to view during thursday night movie night.

[Holidaycheer]

Hey everyone, Sorry for this halloween season and my overall general lack of posting on here as well. Things have gotten pretty crazy for us with our daughter in school and homework and everything. But not to worry, while this year Halloween has sort of fallen to the wayside this season. Christmas web cam is going to be in FULL SWING!!! We recently purchased some new items for a villages, <some cute little spot lights,some little lighted street lights, a reindeer scene with the deer eating the carrot nose of a snowman, some nice little mail boxes>. Will probably be purchasing some new artificial grass/dirt to use as a base for under the snow to help add to the effect. Also, Progress is being made for the design of the life size "Light up north pole" Christmas town. Still working on a way to broadcast a movie on the website so we can have a TC movie night <any ideas on how to do this please PM ME!!!> Christmas eve, we are setting up for Santa to visit our girls along with some of their friends, so he will be making an appearance on the web cam Christmas eve night so I hope you guys will be near a computer either with your little ones <so they can catch a glimpse of santa!!!> of course it's not just for those that have little ones! everyone is invited!! I am going to be creating a section of the website called "Little elves workshop" It's going to be a section for parents to submit their child's Christmas artwork to appear on our site to help spread cheer and make the children feel good about being able to share the holiday spirit with the world! I hope some of you with little ones will participate with that. alright well this post is getting rather lengthy so I will end here for now. Let me know of any feedback you guys may have and I hope we can make this a magical Christmas season for everyone!!

[ChasNole]

Hey everyone, Sorry for this halloween season and my overall general lack of posting on here as well. Things have gotten pretty crazy for us with our daughter in school and homework and everything. But not to worry, while this year Halloween has sort of fallen to the wayside this season. Christmas web cam is going to be in FULL SWING!!! We recently purchased some new items for a villages, <some cute little spot lights,some little lighted street lights, a reindeer scene with the deer eating the carrot nose of a snowman, some nice little mail boxes>. Will probably be purchasing some new artificial grass/dirt to use as a base for under the snow to help add to the effect. Also, Progress is being made for the design of the life size "Light up north pole" Christmas town. Still working on a way to broadcast a movie on the website so we can have a TC movie night <any ideas on how to do this please PM ME!!!> Christmas eve, we are setting up for Santa to visit our girls along with some of their friends, so he will be making an appearance on the web cam Christmas eve night so I hope you guys will be near a computer either with your little ones <so they can catch a glimpse of santa!!!> of course it's not just for those that have little ones! everyone is invited!! I am going to be creating a section of the website called "Little elves workshop" It's going to be a section for parents to submit their child's Christmas artwork to appear on our site to help spread cheer and make the children feel good about being able to share the holiday spirit with the world! I hope some of you with little ones will participate with that. alright well this post is getting rather lengthy so I will end here for now. Let me know of any feedback you guys may have and I hope we can make this a magical Christmas season for everyone!!

Glad ur back. Will certainly miss the Halloween cam, but I know you'll make up for it with the Christmas cam, sounds so cool. Really looking forward to it!

"Life size"..that is too awesome!

[Holidaycheer]

Picking up 5 shipping containers today each are 8 feet long, 4 feet wide, 5 feet tall. Going to use them to set up a permanent christmas village, so we can set them up and leave them up all year. which means much better quality design and the ability to just add pieces we pick up through out the year as we purchase them and allowing for more artistic lighting. I also have a bid in on a new linksys pan/tilt/zoom ip cam, which if I get I will add the pan/tilt/zoom function on the website so you guys can control the camera and see the entire village setup.

[Merry]

Can't wait to see the new display! :confetti:

[Holidaycheer]

the shipping containers are AMAZING!!! They are absolutely perfect for the village housing... I can't express how excited I am to get working on them.

[Christy Carol]

Wow, those are huge! Where are you gonna set this up?

[Holidaycheer]

They are going outside:) They will eventually be the first stop for people when we get the actual life size north pole built. We have two acres to work with and we are working on the land clearing already.

[Holidaycheer]

Well, i was outbid for the ip cam last night by $2.50 in the last 3 seconds of the auction. Which really stinks because it is the only one i have seen that is of good quality for a price I could afford. Not sure if the wife will let me spend 280 bucks on another cam since we already have 3. I just really want one with pan/tilt/zoom to allow guests the chance to view the entire display. Unless someone on here has one they would like to sell cheap:)

[Jinglebelle]

Sorry you were outbid. That stinks.

[omalkm]

I am sorry to be a pain, but what is the website to see everything?

Thanks

[Holidaycheer]

www.lightupnorthpole.com right now the page is a little chaotic, I am doing a full overhaul of the site. It should be up in a week or two.

[Holidaycheer]

Ok everyone, The new site is up and running. New chat system set up also, so we can now have a 'Talk Christmas' chat night. The webcams are not on yet as we still have TONS of work to do before we can get them up and running. I did how ever implement a better email form also, so now emailing santa or little elf holiday cheer is easier than last year. If you have a banner or link you would like to add to our page feel free to send me a pm. Should be a great year for us with all these big changes! I really hope some of you will be regulars on the chat! Santa will be making an early stop to our home twice this year. Let me know what you guys think.

[ChasNole]

Ok everyone, The new site is up and running. New chat system set up also, so we can now have a 'Talk Christmas' chat night. The webcams are not on yet as we still have TONS of work to do before we can get them up and running. I did how ever implement a better email form also, so now emailing santa or little elf holiday cheer is easier than last year. If you have a banner or link you would like to add to our page feel free to send me a pm. Should be a great year for us with all these big changes! I really hope some of you will be regulars on the chat! Santa will be making an early stop to our home twice this year. Let me know what you guys think.

Outstanding!

:):)

[Jinglebelle]

I think it's awesome!! Cant wait for the cam's to go live!!

[Holidaycheer]

Thanks CN and JB. If you have any banners you would like me to add to the site for your stuff just let me know I will find a place for them:) Got some more painting done on the main crate even with this stupid cold <i have no energy>. We also need to set up a TC chat night. Still unsure on if I will be able to add the PTZ feature for the webcams, but either way it will be great!

[Holidaycheer]

i have webcam 1 up right now for testing check it out if you want!

[Jinglebelle]

I missed it!! :(

[Holidaycheer]

Sorry, I really had intended on leaving it up longer, but the weather started to get ugly and since the displays outside this year under a big canopy and inside the wooden container I haven't gotten the hinges on the front yet so the door still has to be screwed in and I am still sick so my energy lvl is running on empty. Did get in about 9 hours of work on the display today though <thank you dayquil> . So it should be good to go in 2 days.

[Merry]

No need to apologize. It's a lot of work. We're just happy you want to share it with us. :1smiley008:

[Holidaycheer]

After being WAYYYY late on getting everything going, tomorrow the cameras go live. This cold I have had for over a week now, has really pushed things way back, I pretty much missed my birthday and thanksgiving because I couldn't really eat. But It's getting better so tomorrow I will get back at the displays and we will be live tomorrow:) If you guys would like to have a Talk Christmas get together, we can set it up for around 8:30 central time.

[Jinglebelle]

I'm glad your getting better! Happy belated birthday :confetti:

8:30 central time... that's 7:30 EST, right? I can't promise, but I will sure try to be there :grinn:

[Christy Carol]

Well poo, I wont be around. Tomorrow night is our Christmas celebration in my hometown. Good luck though!

[Holidaycheer]

Thank you, nope actually 8:30 central is 9:30 eastern. If you can make it great, if not then it's ok also :)

[Holidaycheer]

Well poo, I wont be around. Tomorrow night is our Christmas celebration in my hometown. Good luck though!

:1smiley009: haha it's ok, From tomorrow on, the webcams should be running from about 5 till 10 or 11. :1smiley008:

[Holidaycheer]

Ok. The display is on. The quality isn't the best at the moment, still have tweaking to do. But they are on.

New hours to catch the Display- 5 p.m.- 9:30 p.m. cdt

[CSL-Barb]

The domain is down or is it expired???

[sdkluger]

This site is still there; it's not expired.

[Merry]

I think I need to switch from Chrome to Firefox to see your cam. Popping over now.

[Holidaycheer]

Gearing up again for this year. A little over my head with the amount of work to do I have on my plate. But we will get there:) "hopefully" I have have the PTZ function working this year so you can scroll around the village at your leisure.

[Holidaycheer]

Well, got the village all set up and "snowed" in. Should be getting the new webcam next week then I just have to redesign the site and work in the pan/tilt functions. Hope some of you stop by and say hey.

[gottadance]

Stopped by tonight - enjoyed Here comes Santa Claus - put a smile on my face -thanks! Look forward to webcam go live!

[Holidaycheer]

Thank you Gottadance! :) webcam should be here next week. Then I just need to get the pan and tilt function worked into the website after I redo the site:) So hopefully you will be able to control where in the village you are looking and this also means the webcam will be on ALOT more this year compared to the few times it was on last year:)

[Holidaycheer]

Well, got the new ip cam today <finally> Just about got it all worked into the website. You will be able to control what you see this year:) You can pan and tilt the camera to see different parts of the village.

[Jinglebelle]

Sweeet!!!!!!

[Holidaycheer]

Webcam is on right now. I am testing things so if you want a quick view swing on over www.lightupnorthpole.com

[Jinglebelle]

I was there!!! I saw it! I tried to pan and zoom and stuff, but it only did it a little... I didn't stay long, but IT IS AWESOME!!!!!!!

[Holidaycheer]

Thank you:) Still have some tweaking to do:) For some reason the code written in the encoder has the pan function backwards. So if you click the left arrow it actually pans the camera right and if you click the right arrow it pans the camera left. I don't have access to the code to fix it, so the only real option I can come up with is mirror the image, but then the words on the buildings will be backwards. Also, it's set up on a limiter that doesn't allow one click constant pan. To move the camera a good distance, you have to keep clicking. This should hopefully resolve some issues when there are several people on the page at once trying to control the camera. Now I just need to finish the page design and we should be ready to go thanksgiving:)

[Jinglebelle]

I noticed it was panning opposite what I was clicking... and I had to keep clicking a lot to get it to move much... it was still awesome!! I don't think it's a big deal at all that it pans that way, it's still fun... people won't mind :grinn:

[Dasher]

That is VERY cool! It did not show up in Google Chrome browser, but works fine on Internet Explorer 8. Very well done!

[ChasNole]

Awesome! Love it!

[Holidaycheer]

Thank you everyone for you input :) The webcam is on now if anyone hasn't seen it yet. The webpage is updated for the most part also, just have to work in the chat and a few other things. Enjoy:) http://www.lightupnorthpole.com (http://www.lightupnorthpole.com/)