After an hour or so of playing with various settings and effects there was nothing left but admitting defeat. The LED strips on the bottom of the railing were great accent lights and terrible Christmas lights.
As I sat sulking in my chair, glaring at the lights, I recalled that I had an “extra” roll of pixels from the Mega Tree build. These were basically Christmas lights. Find where I hid the roll, plug it in to the end of the under-rail lights, and loosely wrap it around the railing to see how it looks. Fire it up and stand back.
And it looks great! This is what Christmas lights are supposed to look like! Hmm, three strings would cover the entire railing. Head to the computer and order two more strings.
With a full set of light strands in hand it was time to wrap them around the top rail. She Who Must Be Obeyed suggested “you know, it would look nice if they were draped from the (horizontal) wires”. Why yes, yes it would! And this makes it easy to adjust the length – just fiddle with it until everything was bowed the same amount.
Grab a handful of zip ties, fiddle with the spacing, and zip tie the lights in place. “Patiently” wait for nightfall and fire up the lights. Now This is Christmas!
Login to the WLED controller and start trying the 100+ effects that WLED provides. Find a half dozen that I like and save them into a playlist. Sit back and admire our now festive deck.
Not quite a “I meant to do that!” situation, but worked out in the end.