Where Do I Start When Designing a New RGB Pixel Project for My Holiday Display? (Updated for 2026)

Updated September 2026. We rewrote this guide to reflect how pixel displays are designed and built today, including the software most of our customers now use.

HolidayCoro receives a lot of questions each year from people who don't know exactly where to start with the design of a pixel element (house outline, MegaTree, arches and so on), and we understand how overwhelming it can be when you're just starting out. After working with so many customers, a fairly standard process has emerged that takes most people from "How do I?" to "I did it!"

Want help with your project? Fill out our project design form and we'll put together a recommendation and a complete quote with the lights, controller, mounting and accessories you'll need.

Here is the overall process. Each step is covered in more detail below.

(Click the picture to enlarge)

Common questions before you start

I don't want to solder.
You may not have to. Many of our pixels come with waterproof plug-in connectors on each end, and our Ready2Run packages arrive assembled. Elements like MegaTrees can be almost entirely plug-and-play. A house outline is always custom because every house is different, so expect some cutting and connecting there. If you do need to solder, we have videos on the subject, and it's easier than most people expect.

What is a pixel?
A pixel is a single light, or a small group of lights, that can be set to any color independently of the lights around it, much like a pixel on your computer screen. What a pixel is NOT is a whole string of lights that all change to the same color at the same time, even if those lights are RGB. Every pixel is "smart." There is no such thing as a "dumb pixel."

What about dumb RGB?
Dumb RGB is now rarely used. The cost of pixels has come down so much, and pixels can do so much more than dumb RGB, that there's little reason to choose it for a new project. If you aren't using dumb RGB today, stick with pixel products. See our post on dumb vs. smart RGB for more.

What voltage should I use?
The two common pixel voltages are 5v and 12v DC. For most holiday projects, 12v is the more forgiving choice because it runs longer before you need to inject power. See our Knowledge Base article on the pros and cons of each.

What pixel controller do I need?
People often worry about this early, and it's usually one of the easier decisions. We like to say you don't pick the controller, the controller picks you. Once you've defined your design, pixel count and power, the choices narrow quickly. Our Controller Selection Wizard walks you through it.

I don't know anything about DMX. Is this going to be hard?
No. Pixel controllers receive their data over your home network using a protocol called E1.31 (also called sACN), which is DMX sent over Ethernet. There are really only two things to know: a DMX universe holds 512 channels, which is 170 pixels at 3 channels each (red, green, blue), and each controller output is assigned a starting universe and channel. Your sequencing software handles the rest.

Can I connect pixel controllers to my old Light-O-Rama controllers?
Not directly. Older LOR controllers use the LOR protocol over RS-485 serial cable, which is now considered legacy technology. All modern pixel controllers, including ours, use Ethernet. To connect multiple E1.31 controllers, you just use an ordinary network switch.

Step 1: Pick a single project

It's easy to watch YouTube videos of amazing pixel displays and wonder how to get there. It starts with narrowing your focus to a single project, or "element." Think about the whole display, but build one element at a time. Controllers, power and mounting are usually specific to each element, so building one at a time gets you a win and makes every project after it easier.

The most common starting points are:

House outline

• The house becomes the frame for your whole display
• Always custom, since every house is different
• Mounted with Pixel Pipe (seasonal) or PixaTrack (permanent)
• See our house outline primer and detailed design guide

Pixel MegaTree

• Makes a huge impact in a display
• Can be close to plug-and-play when bought as a package, including pre-sequenced songs
• The mounting system is usually the hardest part, not the lights or controller
• See our MegaTree packages and the MegaTree Builder Wizard

Pixel arches

• Typically very easy to build, often in a few hours
• See our arch packages and arch building accessories

Pixel props

• Stars, snowflakes, singing faces, candy canes and hundreds of other shapes, pre-drilled for pixels
• Standard shapes make purchased sequences much easier to use
• See our pixel props

Step 2: Determine the design

Once you've picked an element, decide exactly what you want it to look like. Some questions to ask:

House outline

• Which areas will you outline: roofline, gutter/fascia, windows, doors, garage?
• Can your audience actually see each of those areas from the street?
• Do you want it up for the season, or year-round?
• Do you want the look of nodes, or of traditional bulbs?

MegaTree

• Where will it go: against the house, on a corner by itself, in the middle of the yard?
• How tall should it be? Will it overwhelm the rest of the display?

Arches

• How many, how long, and how tall?

Without a clear idea of the design, it's nearly impossible to work out the rest. It's also hard to know the cost until you've been through the whole process, so you may need to go through it once, then scale the project up or down to fit your budget.

Step 3: Determine the light type

There are several physical formats of pixels. The major groups are:

Nodes
Nodes came from the sign industry in Asia, where channel letter signs are made from sheet metal drilled with 12mm holes and filled with these lights. The holiday lighting community adopted them, and today 12mm nodes are the most common pixel for house outlines, MegaTrees and props. They come in bullet and flat (square) styles, both with a "neck" that fits a ~12mm hole.

Bullet style node. Note the neck that fits a 12mm hole.

Flat or square style node.

Strip (ribbon)
Pixel strip is a flexible circuit board with LEDs along its length, sold by the meter. It's described by LEDs per meter and pixels (ICs) per meter, so 30/10 strip has 30 LEDs and 10 pixels per meter, with every 3 LEDs acting as one pixel. Strip spacing is fixed and it needs a substrate to mount to, so today it's used less for outlines and trees than nodes, but it still has its place. See our pixel strip.

Modules
Squares, rectangles and pucks with LEDs mounted in a rigid housing. Useful where pixels need to point in many directions or fill an area. See our pixel modules.

Bulbs
Pixels with a diffused cover that mimic the look of traditional C7 or C9 bulbs, like our Brilliant Bulbs. A great choice if you want a classic look with full pixel control.

Not sure which you like? Our Pixel Light Selection Wizard can help.

Step 4: Determine the mounting location and method

Nearly every pixel needs to be mounted to something. Pixels are more fragile than traditional lights, and they need to be accurately spaced and aimed because each one has a specific location in your sequencing software. If the lights don't match the layout, the effects won't look right.

Start with your audience. If your display is viewed from the road, stand in the road and look at it from a typical viewer's height. Avoid placing elements where they block each other (a MegaTree in front of a house outline, for example). A good rule of thumb is larger items toward the back and smaller items toward the front.

House outline

• Make sure every outlined section can be seen from where your audience stands.
• For a seasonal install, Pixel Pipe holds your nodes at a fixed spacing and snaps into clear clips that can stay up year-round.
• For a permanent install, PixaTrack encloses the wiring and comes in off-white or brown to blend with the house.
• Mounting under the fascia or soffit hides the hardware but can reflect light onto the wall ("wall washing"). Mounting on the front of the fascia gives a crisp outline.

MegaTree

• Most trees only need to look good from the front (about 180 degrees), since they usually sit at the back of a display.
• A MegaTree is really a rectangle of pixels wrapped into a cone, so the pixels need consistent vertical and horizontal spacing. PixNode strips and the QuickTree mounting system are built for this.

Arches

• Arches are simple: a bent pipe, the pixels attached along it, and stakes in the ground. See our arch building accessories.

Think through the whole life cycle: not just building it, but installing it, repairing it and storing it in the off-season.

Step 5: Determine how many lights you need

More pixels isn't always better. Think about your TV: stand two feet away and you can see the individual pixels, but from across the room the picture is smooth. Holiday pixels work the same way. What matters is the spacing of the pixels compared to how far away your audience is.

Pixel type	Recommended viewing distance
12mm node, 1" center-to-center	10 to 50 feet
12mm node, 2" center-to-center	20 to 80 feet
12mm node, 3" center-to-center	60 to 120 feet
60/20 strip	10 to 60 feet
30/10 strip	30 to 170 feet

Why not just add more pixels?

• Past a certain distance, no one can see the difference. Tightly spaced pixels on a house viewed from 150 feet away look the same as wider spacing.
• More pixels means more channels. Every pixel adds three channels, which means more controller outputs, more network data and larger sequences.
• More pixels means more power. That means heavier wire, more power injection and bigger power supplies.
• Colors blend at a distance. Alternate red and green on very tightly spaced pixels, view them from 75 feet, and you'll see a muddy yellow instead of crisp red and green.

Pick a spacing that fits your viewing distance. Nodes and bulbs let you choose your spacing; strip spacing is fixed.

Step 6: Calculate power and pixel counts

Now put on your math hat. Pixel count is the length of each run divided by the spacing:

20 feet × 12 = 240 inches ÷ 3 inch spacing = 80 pixels

When planning spacing, check three limits with your vendor:

• Minimum spacing, the closest two pixels can be mounted.
• Maximum spacing, set by the wire length between pixels. Confirm the center-to-center spacing, not just the wire length.
• Maximum gap, the distance the data signal can travel between pixels or from the controller to the first pixel. If you need to go farther, long-range receivers or "null" pixels can bridge the gap.

Then calculate power. Watts = volts × amps, and 1 amp = 1,000 milliamps (mA). For example, our 12v 12mm nodes draw about 45 mA each at full white, or about 0.55 watts. A 100-node string is about 55 watts. Add up all your pixels, then size your power supplies with headroom above the total.

Published specs are a starting point, but the only sure way to know is to measure. Wire gauge, temperature, supply voltage and the quality of the pixels all change the real number. Set your pixels to full white for 15 to 30 minutes and measure with a meter.

For a fully worked example, see our detailed house outline design guide.

Step 7: Select the controller

With your pixel counts and power worked out, choosing a controller is straightforward. Look at:

• Pixels per output. How many pixels each output can drive.
• Power per output and per controller. Don't go by the fuse rating; the fuse protects against shorts, it doesn't define capacity.
• Number of outputs. One per continuous run, plus room to grow.
• Distance. A central controller works when your runs start close together. For larger layouts, a controller with long-range receivers lets you put outputs right where the runs start.

No matter how powerful the power supply is, there's a limit to how much current can travel down the small wires in a pixel string. Past that point, you bring power in partway down the run. This is called power injection:

Our Controller Selection Wizard walks you through the options, or browse our Ready2Run pixel controllers.

Step 8: Select the sequencing software

This used to be a hard choice. Today it's easy: use xLights.

About 80% of our residential customers sequence with xLights. It's free, it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, and it has the largest community and the most tutorials of any sequencing software. At this point, xLights is better than the paid alternatives in every way that matters for a pixel display: its effects are built for pixels, its visualizer shows your display on a model of your house, and it can map sequences built for someone else's layout onto yours.

To run the show itself, most people pair xLights with FPP (Falcon Player), free show-player software that runs on a small, inexpensive computer like a Raspberry Pi. You sequence on your PC, copy the show to FPP, and it runs your schedule every night without tying up a computer.

About 15% of our customers use Light-O-Rama S5 or S6, usually because they already own LOR hardware and sequences. All of our pixel controllers work with it over E1.31. If you're starting fresh, though, start with xLights.

Step 9: Choose how you'll get sequences

There are two approaches, and many people use both:

Sequence it yourself

• Every sequence is 100% customized to your display.
• No sequences to buy.
• It takes time: anywhere from an hour per song for a simple sequence to many hours per minute of music for a detailed, hand-built one.

Buy pre-made sequences

• Lets you use sequences built by people with more experience.
• Works best when your elements match the sequence: MegaTrees and standard props like ours are the easiest.
• Custom elements, especially house outlines, will need some remapping. xLights makes this much easier than it used to be.
• See our MegaTree sequences and whole house pixel sequences.

Let us help

We've tried to boil the process down to its essentials, but it can still feel like a lot. Start with a single project, and like nearly all of our customers, you'll be building bigger and better elements before you know it.

If you'd like a hand, fill out our project design form and we'll put together a recommendation and a complete quote for your project.

Have a great season from HolidayCoro.com!

Outlining Your House in RGB Lights - Detailed Design Guide (Updated for 2026)

Updated September 2026. We rewrote this guide around the pixels, mounting and controllers we recommend today. The original 2013 version was built around pixel strip and hardware that has since been replaced.

When you're planning a Christmas display, it's easy to focus on everything going in the yard. But the biggest prop is already there: your house. Outline it, and the house becomes part of the sequence, framing everything you've built in front of it.

Vineyards Lights, Meridian, ID. The rooflines, peaks and garage all become part of the show.

If you want the big picture first (why a mounting system matters and how to pick between seasonal and permanent), start with our house outline primer. This post is the step-by-step design: how to measure, how many pixels you need, how to power them and where the controller goes.

Would you rather have us do the math? Fill out our project design form and we'll send you instructions for sending us one photo of your house and your measurements. We'll put together a recommendation and a complete quote with the controller, mounting, hardware and accessories for your project.

Step 1: Start with a photo

Go outside and take a photo of your house from where your audience will see it, usually the street. You'll sketch your design on this photo and use it to record measurements, where cables will run and where the controller and power supplies will go.

We'll use Nathanial R.'s house as our example throughout. It has 19 separate rooflines, so it's a good example of how a house with complex roof lines can be handled.

Step 2: Measure every run

Get out the ladder and tape measure and record the exact length of every section you want to outline. Write each one on the photo.

Accuracy matters. Every foot you miss is another 4 pixels at 3 inch spacing, which changes your pixel count, your power budget and possibly how many controller outputs you need.

Step 3: Choose seasonal or permanent mounting

Across a whole house, mounting pixels one at a time means a lot of clips, a lot of alignment and a lot of visible black wire. A mounting system lets you build the outline in sections that hold their spacing and aim, snap into a few clips and come down as a unit for repairs.

Want it to come down after Christmas? Use Pixel Pipe. Each aluminum pipe is 7.3 feet long with 88 holes on 1 inch centers, sized for standard 12mm bullet pixel nodes. It's available in black, white or mill-finish grey, mounts with clear, UV-resistant clips that can stay on the house year-round, and rotates in its clips so you can aim the pixels toward your viewing area. Couplers, corners and tees let you follow the roofline.

Want it to stay up? Use PixaTrack. Each track is 6.66 feet long with 80 holes on 1 inch centers and takes 12mm bullet or square-neck nodes. It fully encloses the wiring to protect it from UV and animals, comes in off-white or brown to blend with the house, and is available with front-facing or side/down-facing holes.

Both come as samples, so you can hold one up against your house before you decide.

Step 4: Pick your spacing and count your pixels

Because both systems are drilled on 1 inch centers, you can space pixels at 1, 2, 3 inches or more by skipping holes. Two things set how far apart you can go:

• The wire length between nodes on the pixel string. Our 100-count 12mm node strings reach up to about 3.4 inches between nodes. For wider spacing, our 6 inch strings reach up to about 6.8 inches.
• The look you want. Closer spacing reads as a solid line and gives you more resolution for effects. Wider spacing costs less and gives a more classic bulb-by-bulb look.

The math is simple:

Pixels = run length in inches ÷ spacing in inches
DMX channels = pixels × 3

For Nathanial's house we grouped the 19 measured sections into four continuous runs and used 3 inch spacing:

Run	Length	Pixels (3" spacing)	DMX channels	Watts at full white
Garage front	26 ft	104	312	57
Garage, over the doors	34 ft	136	408	75
Front of house, upper	53 ft	212	636	117
Front of house, lower	31 ft	124	372	68
Total	144 ft	576	1,728	317

At 170 pixels per DMX universe, 576 pixels needs 4 universes. Any current E1.31 pixel controller handles that over a single network cable.

Step 5: Plan your power

Our 12v, 12mm nodes draw about 0.55 watts each at full white (45 milliamps). That's where the watts column above comes from: 576 pixels × 0.55 W = about 317 watts, or roughly 26 amps at 12 volts. Size your power supplies with headroom above that number, since draw varies with temperature, wiring and supply voltage.

The second question is how far the power can travel. As power runs down a string, voltage drops through the LEDs and the wire itself. Our 100-count node strings are designed to run the full 100 nodes with power fed at the start. Past that, plan to inject power. Three of the four runs above are over 100 pixels, so each would get power injection partway along, or be split into two shorter runs fed from separate outputs.

To inject, run heavier-gauge wire (14 AWG is a good start) from the power supply to the injection point and connect it to the power and ground of the string there. The data passes straight through, since each pixel regenerates it. See our guide to wire selection for sizing the injection wire.

Test before it goes on the house. Build a section, set it to full white for 15 to 30 minutes and measure the voltage at the controller output and at the last pixel with a multimeter. A drop of 10 to 20% is usually fine. Much more than that and you'll see dimming or color shift at the end of the run, or random flicker if the voltage falls below what the pixel chips need. Finding that on the ground is a lot easier than finding it on the roof.

Step 6: Place the controller

Look at your photo for where runs start and end. Places where two runs meet, like a garage corner or the peak over a front door, are natural spots to feed two outputs from one location. Current pixel controllers and sequencing software let you reverse a run's direction, so a run can start at either end.

The data signal from a pixel controller output only travels a limited distance to the first pixel, so you have two basic layouts:

• One central controller. An AlphaPix Classic with 4 or 16 outputs, placed somewhere central and close to the runs. It keeps everything in one enclosure, and spare outputs can drive other props in the yard.
• A controller plus long-range receivers. With a Flex system, the controller can sit in the garage and small long-range receivers go near the roofline where the runs start. This is the better fit for large houses, runs that start far apart, or when you want the main controller out of sight.

For Nathanial's four runs and about 317 watts, a single 4-output controller placed near the garage corner would handle the whole outline. Adding props later, or splitting the long runs, is where a 16-output controller or a Flex system with receivers starts to make sense. Our Controller Selection Wizard walks you through the options.

Step 7: Build and test on the ground

One of the biggest advantages of Pixel Pipe and PixaTrack is that you can build each section on the ground, plug it in and test it before it goes up. With connectors between sections, a problem later means unplugging one section, fixing it in the garage and putting it back without disturbing your spacing. With a seasonal install, the sections come down as a unit and go back up next year exactly as they were.

Watch the full process

Our house outline video walks through planning and building an outline with Pixel Pipe and PixaTrack from start to finish:

Let us put it together for you

You don't have to work out every part of the system yourself. Fill out our project design form and we'll send you instructions for sending one photo of your house and your measurements. We'll look at what you're planning and put together a recommendation and a complete quote with the controller, mounting, hardware and accessories you'll need.

Want to see the mounting in person first? Pixel Pipe and PixaTrack samples let you compare colors against your house before choosing a system.

HolidayCoro.com

Outlining Your House in RGB Lights - A Primer (Updated for 2026)

Updated September 2026. This post replaces our original 2013 primer with how we recommend outlining a house today.

When you're planning a Christmas display, it's easy to focus on everything going in the yard.

But the biggest prop is already there: your house.

A yard full of props can already make a great show. Outline the house behind them, and now the house becomes part of the sequence too. It frames everything you've built in front of it and gives you a much bigger canvas to work with.

Here's one from a HolidayCoro customer:

Landry Lights, Hudson, NH. This is a great example of why the house itself can become such a big part of the display.

And when you're putting that many pixels across a house, how you mount them starts to matter.

Why use a mounting system?

You can absolutely hang pixels individually. But across an entire house, you're now dealing with a lot of individual pixels, clips, alignment, and visible black wire.

A mounting system turns that outline into sections you can build once and work with as a unit.

1. Keep the spacing, and the look, consistent.
Instead of positioning and angling every pixel individually on the house, the mounting keeps them at the spacing and orientation you set. You can commit to the look you want, with pixels facing outward for a clean, defined outline or oriented toward the house for a wall-wash effect, without ending up with a mix of both along the same run.

2. Deal with a lot fewer individual clips.
A whole section can snap into a few clips instead of attaching pixels one at a time across the house.

3. Keep the installation cleaner-looking.
Pixel Pipe (seasonal) and PixaTrack (permanent) keep the pixels and wiring organized instead of leaving loose black pixel wire running along the house. That makes the installation less noticeable when the lights are off, too.

4. Bring repairs down to the garage.
With connectors between sections, you can unplug a section, bring it down, make the repair, and put it right back where it was. Your spacing stays intact.

5. Make the next installation easier.
With a seasonal installation, the sections can come down and go back up without starting over on pixel spacing and alignment, or moving the ladder for every individual pixel.

You can also build and test Pixel Pipe and PixaTrack sections on the ground before they go on the house.

A few more customer installs

Casey's 2025 display, before and after. Notice what happens when the house joins the display. The roofline gives the whole show a frame and connects the props in the yard to the house behind them.

Vineyards Lights, Meridian, ID. Look at how much of this display comes from the house outline itself. The rooflines, peaks, garage, and other architectural details all become usable parts of the show.

Thinking about what this could look like on your house?

The first choice is pretty simple.

Want it to come down after Christmas? Go with Pixel Pipe.

Pixel Pipe is built for seasonal installations. The clear, UV-resistant clips can stay on the house year-round, so your completed sections are ready to go back up the next season.

Pixel Pipe can also rotate in its clips, letting you dial in the direction the pixels face toward your viewing area.

Get Seasonal Mounting: Pixel Pipe

Want it to stay up? Go with PixaTrack.

PixaTrack is designed for permanent installations. It fully encloses the wiring, keeping it away from squirrels and other animals while protecting it from UV damage.

The wiring stays out of sight, and PixaTrack is available in off-white or brown to help it blend with the house, which can also help with HOAs.

It's available in front-facing and side/down-facing versions depending on how you want the pixels positioned.

Get Permanent Mounting: PixaTrack

Not sure exactly what you'll need? We'll help you figure it out.

You don't have to work out every part of the system yourself. Fill out our project design form and we'll send you instructions for sending us one photo of your house and your measurements.

We'll look at what you're planning and put together a recommendation and a complete quote with the controller, mounting, hardware, and accessories you'll need for your project.

Want to see the mounting on your house before deciding?

We offer Pixel Pipe and PixaTrack samples so you can see the mounting in person, compare the colors against your house, and get a feel for how it will look before choosing a system.

Still working through the design?

Our house outline video walks through the planning process from start to finish:

Want to run the numbers yourself? Our detailed house outline design guide walks through measuring, pixel counts, power, and controller placement step by step.

HolidayCoro.com