Christmas Lights Planner

An inexpensive solution for planning out your Christmas light displays in advance

When I first saw Christmas Lights Planner by Summitsoft I couldn’t help but feel a little skeptical… I wondered exactly how helpful such an inexpensive piece of software could be. I decided that since it didn’t cost very much it was at least worth a shot, and I have to say that I think I more than got my money’s worth from this little purchase. It really did make the planning of my Christmas decorations easier, and even gave me an idea of how many lights I would need in order to pull off the look that I was wanting for my house.

One of the nicest features of the program is that it uses an actual image of your home as the backdrop for your display design, so you’ll have a good idea of what it will actually look like once you have all of your lights strung up. Of course, this requires that you have a digital camera to take the picture or that you have a picture of your home already on your computer, but in this day and age just about everyone either has a digital camera or knows someone that they can get to come over and take a few pictures for them. Just make sure that you take the picture on a clear day so that it will show up well in the program.

After you’ve loaded the picture of your home, you just need to size up the digital door that the software displays so that it matches your own front door and you’re ready to start decorating. There’s actually a wide range of decorating options that are available from this piece of software, including multiple types of lights and other decorations such as snow and various images.

If you’re hoping to come up with a nice light display that isn’t going to cost you a lot of money to operate there are even options for low-energy LED lights that won’t use much electricity and that can be used over and over again for several years without burning out.

Another very useful feature of the program is that when you finish with your design and have it the way that you want it you can print out a list of what you’ll need in order to actually create the design on your home. Many of the values are estimated, but it will let you know approximately how many lights you’re going to need as well as any other supplies that you’ll need to create the display that you’ve come up with in the program.

Obviously it will be up to you to find all of the lights and other pieces that are on the list and the stores that you shop at might offer different options than those that are listed by the program, but it’s at least a starting point and it’s more of an advantage than you’d have if you were trying to figure it all out by yourself. The list that the software creates can save you several return trips looking for more lights.

I’d definitely recommend Christmas Lights Planner to anyone who’s interested in doing more than just a very basic light display.

Review by Timothy Zyler