Ship of Fools: Christmas lights

Thread: Christmas lights - bah humbug Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by St. Gwladys (# 14504) on :

The first Christmas lights in our street went up the week after bonfire night. Last night, we saw another two houses with their lights up - a flashing starand a santa seesaw -yuch!

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

Nothing in my neighborhood yet, although a number of houses still have pumpkins rotting on the front steps from Halloween. A week from today is when most people will get going on their outdoor lights in the States.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Nothing so gaudy in this douce and respectable part of Embra. But there are one or two houses deck a mature tree in their garden with tiny white fairy lights - though I think up the road cut loose last year with ice blue. I rather like the effect.

Posted by nickel (# 8363) on :

No lights yet, but I enjoy letting our Halloween pumpkins shrivel up and rot in the front flower bed. They get so much more character as they age, maybe we should start carving them on Oct 1st instead of Oct 31st!

Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :

Nothing on my street yet, but the day after Thanksgiving, the man two doors down and across and I will be engaged in our annual unspoken competition. I use many multicolored lights because it's my belief that 'tis the season to be gaudy.

Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :

No lights in our area. Many people put them up the day after Thanksgiving.

Posted by no prophet (# 15560) on :

Seven strings of LED lights on the house. We put them up usually on Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, which is the second Monday in October. But we don't plug them in until after 11 Nov.

We have to put them up in October, because today, overnight it was -32°C (-26°F) and that's too cold for my hands to enjoy doing it. With the darkness coming at 4 pm and sunrise something around 9 am, it is happy to see some glowing lights when I arrive from my 12 km commute on my bicycle.

Posted by PeteC (# 10422) on :

Never bother with them myself, and tend to spit when I see any lit before Advent IV (December 22 this year)

I will be in India for Christmas this year, and the locals have lights left on their houses from Diwali.

It doesn't bother me too much, as it is downright handy when returning from a walk after dark. And I don't have to put up with crass over-marketing or Muzak.

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

The first Christmas lights in Newport were seen before Hallowe'en! I didn't believe it at first so I made a detour on the way home the next night to be sure. OK, they were only red, green & yellow flashing lights round the hall window but they weren't there before and they haven't come down since.

I'll let them off though: they weren't nasty, cold blue lights, which have no place at Christmas.

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :

I'm not sure that I mind the "cold blue" lights, especially if they're outdoors. Lining the roads round the University here, every tree and shrub will be decorated with those "dark" red, blue and green (LED?) lights and the effect is really pretty.

We've never done the outside light thing; I don't think we have an outside socket, and the only colour permitted chez Piglet is white. Candle-bridges in the windows from the start of Advent and Christmas tree and staircase decorations any time after D's birthday (10th December).

[ 23. November 2013, 02:01: Message edited by: piglet ]

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

My Christmas lights consist of plug-in 'candles' on the windowsill that automatically go on when it's dark and go off when it's light.

Aside from creating a pretty effect, it only takes twenty minutes to put them all in place.

Moo

Posted by BessHiggs (# 15176) on :

In proper redneck fashion, we do have a string of christmas lights which stay up on the front porch of our double-wide all year long. These are a left-over from the previous wife and since a) they're never turned on and b) we never use the front door, they shall most likely remain there until the second coming. That is the sum total of our christmas decorations.

There is a boy in town who is big into christmas decorations. He's got something upwards of 40 trees that he displays both inside and outside his house. Makes me very glad I don't live next door to him.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Until I moved to the present house I was anti any outside Christmas display other than a tree with lights.

But then our neighbour (Scrooge's spiritual twin) went on and on about the "vulgarity" of a house further up the road - turned out they had an electric candle bridge in the window behind their curtains so it could be seen from the road! Shock, horror & scandal.

So it was fortuitous that an older Godbrother of the children gave them a set of 120 outdoor lights.

Now, we have: coloured light ropes, some on flicker setting, others on all the time, which go up the front wall to the roof and along the top of the garden wall; a massive snowflake; Happy Christmas (in Welsh) with 2 father Christmases; and a set of eaves-level green icicle lights.

And there's more excess inside... [Yipee]

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

I think Christmas lights are fun. I just wonder how some of the people with the really ornate displays (like the animated Santa getting off his sleigh and climbing down the chimney, done in lights, plus a whole bunch of other things) manage their electricity bills.

Posted by art dunce (# 9258) on :

We do luminarias on Christmas Eve. I hope to do at least 100 this year.

Posted by cattyish (# 7829) on :

I shall bring in the potted tree which I bought for a tenner six years ago when it feels Christmassy enough- probably about the 12th of December. It'll get a few fairy lights. The neighbours behind us might see it from their upstairs.

Most of my neighbours will start the draping of dangly LED strings from the beginning of December. It looks cheery to me.

Meanwhile in Aberdeen there will be massive lit displays in gardens throughout one particular area and children will be taken round to see them in minibuses.
Cattyish, too cheap to pay for all that power.

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :

A local landmark, the Mission Inn, covers it for most of us: like this, this, and this.

Me, I might put an LED snowflake in my window.

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
... they had an electric candle bridge in the window behind their curtains so it could be seen from the road ...

There's not much point in putting them up if they can't be seen from the road. I just don't close the curtains.

Posted by Carex (# 9643) on :

As I was jogging through the neighborhood today I saw the first of the lights going up. We have recently moved, and the neighbors on either side of use talked about how they compete with each other in their displays. We'll see how that plays out this year.

So now we're debating what to do. One thought is something simple and dramatic - and even better if it celebrates some other holiday or tradition. Perhaps a dove of peace, or spelling out "Merry Christmas" in Sanskrit, or a note that we donated our decoration budget for disaster relief...

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