Friday, December 10, 2004

Ugly Christmas lights

I have to laugh. Someone else is hip to ugly Christmas lights too. I love to look at houses and see what I think is wrong. Is this negative? wierd? nasty? I don't think so. I am just fascinated by what people come up with. It is so individualistic. I read today that you can hire people who come in and do your outdoor lights for you. They charge anywhere from $1000 to $10,000 to light up the outside of your house and set things up so they can come back each year and use the same fixtures. That seems to take the fun out of it, but I admit, for someone with a lot of money and a big house, why not?

My favorite Christmas light mistake is droopy drawer lights, where icicle lights are strung with the top string swooping down in scallops. Or when they take icicle lights and just drop them down so they hang loose around a door. Have you noticed how many white deer there are on people's lawns lately? My least favorite thing I think is the new "Macy's parade" blow up dolls that people put on their lawns. They all look like they belong in a fast food restaurant. (I do have to admit that I would like a Spongebob for my lawn though.) Some people here in Saugus, Massachusetts have their whole house, lawn, driveway and garage covered with lights and whirlygigs and masses of colored moving lights of all kinds. It is really amazing. Little kids get out of the cars and roam the lawns like they are at Disneyworld. People line up in cars around the neighborhood. The same houses go overboard every year. You can see them hanging those millions of lights on Thanksgiving Day. I can't imagine how much work that is and I give them credit for their commitment.

And who am I to talk? We don't even have our lights up yet.