More Christmas Light Stars

Almost two years have passed since my post about making Snowflake Star Christmas Lights. Since then I have done a couple variations on the original design. The first one was made last year and is my version of a Christmas Star or North Star. It uses a 35 light strand for the vertical section, a 20 light strand for the horizontal section and another 20 light strand divided up across the two diagonal sections. This strand was cut and spliced back together so that each of the diagonal sections had 10 bulbs each.

This year I started thinking about how to make a smaller version on the original design. The easiest solution was to reduce the number of strands to 2 each 20 light strands so that each section of the star ended up having half of a 20 light strand. The vertical slat is 16″ long (to allow for the hanging hole at the top) and the other 3 slats are 12 1/2″ long. Since these are half the size of the originals, I ended up ripping the pressure treated wood slats down to 1″ wide. Also, the center fastener was reduced down to a #8 machine screw instead of the 1/4″ carriage bolt used on the originals.

For installation of the lights, I discovered a trick that made dividing the strand across two sections easier. These 20 light strands from the Dollar Tree are very short and the bulb sockets close together. No doubt that this is necessary to meet the $1.25 price point that they are sold for. Upon closer inspection, I determined that by untwisting the strands, there is actually more length between the bulb sockets from the way they appear at first glance.

Once a strand is untwisted, it is very easy to begin installing the lights from each half of the strand down two adjacent sections of the star.

Upon reaching the end of the two sections, a little bit of jumping back and forth as seen below is necessary to handle the short length of wire between the two light sockets that were at the end of the formerly twisted strand (lower right). It looks a little bit messy but not having to cut or splice any of the wires more than makes up for it.

Finally after both light strands were installed, hot glue was used to secure the sockets to the wood slats.

I hope you enjoy making your own and have a Merry Christmas!