Locker Decorations!

t'was the night before Christmas... well actually a month before Christmas... there was a creature stirring.

It was the beginning of the construction of my portable Christmas decorations destined for my locker in the upper level Central building at Carl Sandburg High School. The hallways and lockers are a nice drab color, so what better than to add a bit of color!

I didn't intend to document the entire process, but I can supply some general information. It began with experimentation with a power supply about a month before Christmas. The first was overly powerful and destroyed an entire string of L.E.D. Christmas lights. :( With a better idea of what was required, I settled on 28 AA batteries wired in-series. The lights were initially a string of 75 L.E.D. lights. They were designed to work with standard household voltage of 120V, but there is no practical way of providing this current, so I had to rewire the lights. My solution was to divide the lights into 4 separate sections and then connect them in parallel.

While the lights are the main attraction, I did find space for a 1 foot Christmas tree: complete with more lights, glass ornaments, and candy canes (which didn't last long). Additionally, I built a switch to turn on all the lights when I opened the locker. It was secured to my shelf with a Ne-Fe-B super magnet which helped provide flawless performance.

This was the second year that I put up Christmas decorations in my locker. The first was my junior year, and it was simply a small tree with some garland. It received a strong response and so I did it again. As a senior, it was my last shot, so it had to be good. As of this writing The whole setup is still intact (except for those candy canes) and can be seen if you catch me at my locker (C207-G). I have no plans to dismantle it.

Disclaimer: Just because I did this doesn't mean that you should. It could be dangerous if improperly constructed. I take no responsibility for any damages potentially caused by anyone trying to replicate a similar setup.

P.S. When the transformer blew up and the power was out in the Central building... I was the only person with power. :D And yes, my locker was always that neat.