# Lighting structures for Christmas layout



## JRay8 (Nov 21, 2021)

Hey Guys,
I need a solution for lighting structures on my Christmas tree layout. I want to steer clear of battery operated lights, I tried several and they just don't last long enough. I purchased some Just Plug lights but it is getting too complicated for a seasonal layout. I have a mixed bag of structures from plasticville to paper glitter houses. I tried a string of Christmas lights and they were too bright and had too many lights close together. Has anyone found something that works for them?
thanks
Jim


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

I use a mixture of Snow Village and Plasticville structures on my Christmas layouts. I cut the plugs off the Snow Village lights, drill a 1/4" hole in the layout and drop the wires through. I wire nut them together under the layout with additional lamp cord for length. Wire nut on a plug and you are good to go. If you want you can tape on the wire nuts with electrical tape. For bulbs you can use C7 low wattage incandescent night lights or warm white LED's. 
For the Plasticville and other buildings just get a cheap string of C7 tree lights and cut them into individual sockets. Wire them as above. Its a whole lot easier to just wire nut all these lights together and plug it into 120V than to run lights off 12V power. I have about 20 buildings on the layout. Once placed, I can wire them all up in an hour.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Can you clarify what you mean by the Just Plug lighting system getting "too complicated" for your Christmas layout? Because absent your comment, that's exactly what I would have recommended.

If you mean that the daisy chain of little boxes is getting hard to organize, or to hide and / or disguise, I get that. But if it's the complexity of the wiring itself that's getting you, then I'm afraid you'll have to stick with the Christmas lights, because it doesn't get any easier than Just Plug for wiring individual structure lights. There are far cheaper solutions, but not really any simpler ones.


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## JRay8 (Nov 21, 2021)

With Just Plug it's 1 plug=1 light. if you have 50 structures to light you would need 13 hubs and a second mortgage to finance it. If you could link the lights together and run multiple lights off 1 plug it would be much more practical. as is 13 hubs, 50 light leads, wiring between hubs, it was turning into a complicated web of wires that was all visible under the tree. If i were building a permanent layout on a table where it was all hidden under the table it would be better but my layout is under the tree on the floor. that's why i didn't like it. If you like Just Plug I have 3 hubs, extra wire and and some lights I would part with for cheap.


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## vette-kid (May 2, 2020)

Get a string of C7 Christmas lights

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk


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## Lemonhawk (Sep 24, 2013)

If I were to do the lighting for a 'village' I would use these








Amazon.com: ALITOVE WS2811 Addressable LED Pixel Light 50pcs 5V 12MM Digital Dream Color Diffused RGB LED Pixels Module Round Black Wire IP68 Waterproof : Tools & Home Improvement


Amazon.com: ALITOVE WS2811 Addressable LED Pixel Light 50pcs 5V 12MM Digital Dream Color Diffused RGB LED Pixels Module Round Black Wire IP68 Waterproof : Tools & Home Improvement



www.amazon.com




Wire the string thru the village and get a nice 5v power supply to power up the lights. Then take a Arduino Nano (or bigger) to drive the data line to the lights. You could make an easy program that would control all the lights at some color and brightness the you could easily adjust. But, if you want to take if further you could make the individual lights in the village act like candles, incandescent, florescent, shop welding and what ever you wanted. Easy -- if you into programming an Arduino. Since each light has its own address, you trade ease of installation software complications.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

JRay8 said:


> With Just Plug it's 1 plug=1 light. if you have 50 structures to light you would need 13 hubs and a second mortgage to finance it. If you could link the lights together and run multiple lights off 1 plug it would be much more practical. as is 13 hubs, 50 light leads, wiring between hubs, it was turning into a complicated web of wires that was all visible under the tree. If i were building a permanent layout on a table where it was all hidden under the table it would be better but my layout is under the tree on the floor. that's why i didn't like it. If you like Just Plug I have 3 hubs, extra wire and and some lights I would part with for cheap.


Out of the box, yes. That's what, out people want is the ability to control each building independently. And I noted the expense. So what you're saying is that it's NOT too complicated; it's just not suited to the application you want to perform.

But with a little electrical work, you can splice more than one LED light into the same plug. That's no harder than the other wiring that you're contemplating. Then you can control a group of lights with one hub.


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