A short while ago my family and I were out observing the neighborhood christmas decorations. One thing my mother (who apparently reads entirely too much high fantasy) particularly liked was the strings of christmas lights draped in the trees. She noted that when the wind blew through the trees, it looked like a cloud of faeries flitting about. I noted that, except in very high winds, the lights would not "flit" much, and only along a short arc. This got both of us thinking on ways to improve the effect.

Faerie lights, in their most basic form, consist of a relatively thick main electrical chord. At periodic intervals, thinner lines would hang from the main chord. Each of these lines would end in a light. Slightly above each light, there would be a piece of hard, transparent plastic in a roughly triangular shape.

When hung in a tree, the plastic would catch even small breezes, causing the lights to fly and twirl about, resulting in a much more animated light display.

A number of additional features would be available for more deluxe models. Warped plastic 'sails' would cause even more erratic dancing. Putting clusters of colored lights at the bottom of each chord would give the appearance of the lights changing color as they spun about. And, of course, frosted or clear light covers in the shapes of winged faeries would be available.
-- nick_n_uit, Dec 09 2004

Sounds like a great excuse to use fiber optics. Fiber optic fibers can be very thin, and should dance around nicely (especially with a little sail attached).
-- Worldgineer, Dec 09 2004


Ooh, that's cute. Like icicle lights, but with sails, right?
-- spacecadet, Dec 09 2004


<bursts into song>

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

Eeeeeverywhere you goooo."

<shoots Bing> <end song> (+)
-- ConsulFlaminicus, Dec 09 2004



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