Pegboard Windows
Given the number of windows our home has, it was an obvious choice to include the windows in our show. The problem with windows is that there are very few good methods of attaching christmas lights to the windows. Compounding the problem was the fact our house does not have any way to hang an exterior mount for window lights. My wife suggested we use pegboard and insert Christmas lights from the back side of the frames. The fit was almost perfect, but this project is extremely time consuming. On the other hand, the lights in our windows have never looked better.
To do this project, I measured each window in our home. I then went to Lowes and purchased the necessary boards. Once nice thing about Lowes is that if you purchase enough material, they will cut it for you for free. I had them cut the pegboard down to the necessary sizes for every window in my home. Given the size of their wall-mounted saw, I couldn't compete with the quality of cuts with my table saw.
I then placed the boards white side down, and layed out the lights. I determined that I could not alternate all 3 colors in 1 line as the spacing between bulbs was just too small. I decided to do red and green on the perimeter and set a layer of clear one row in. This will allow me to add blue lights in the future.
I then took hot glue and put a line of glue right where the bulb meets the socket. This let me firmly seat the bulb on the back side of the pegboard. I later picked up a bag of assorted spring clamps. The smaller clamps were perfect for clamping onto the mini bulb while the glue dried, allowing me to move on to the next bulb while the glue was still setting up.
On average, each window used ~90 bulbs of each color, and each window probably took 2.5 hours to complete. While this was a significant time investment, the lines are perfectly straight, the lights will not fall off the windows, and I won't be using a paint scraper to remove dried tape remnants from the windows this spring. Oh, and setup will be a breeze.