Twinkling holiday lights

[GadAbout]

Have you noticed more houses with brilliant, gaudy displays of outdoor lights, this year?

I have, or at least it seems to me there are more. I'm attributing it to the falling price of LED lights, combined with the very low cost to operate them.

With the sun setting around 4:15 and total darkness falling by 5 p.m., I still have many errands that put me out driving after dark. I appreciate the holiday lights! It would feel very dreary without them.

This year, rather to my own surprise, I bought a string of lights and coiled it around my porch pillar. It was affordable and they are pretty. I'm not keeping up with the Joneses, I'm just adding "this little light of mine" to the seasonal display. The longest night of the year is just a day or two away. Fight the darkness! Do not go gentle into that good night!

 

[Mia]

Enjoy the coloured lights myself. It makes it pleasant when I walk around at night. Some displays are quite extensive and some are beautiful.

 

[Pats]

I've always enjoyed the Christmas lights. Always reminds me of my childhood - every year we'd go out and look at all the displays in store windows downtown and then ride around looking at all the lights. To me it seems there's not as many, but everything looks more and bigger when you're young.

 

[Judge]

Oh, here we have a few neighborhoods where I wouldn't consider them to be bright or gaudy.

More like Broadway Musicals.

Part of our Christmas ritual. If it isn't snowing, to go out after dinner to see a number of such neighborhoods.

 

[Autistamatic]

We have fairy lights around the huge mirror in our living room permanently. When we add to it at Christmas I love it. As mentioned, the price of LEDs has come down dramatically in recent years, as has that of rechargeable cells, so now it's easy to put them wherever and whenever you fancy

 

[christopher.k]

I find them a bit obnoxious to look at
though I also find darkness underrated so take that as you will.

 

[Wolfnox]

Always appreciate good Christmas light displays.

 

[FreeDiver]

Have you noticed more houses with brilliant, gaudy displays of outdoor lights, this year?

I don't know about that. In my town, only 1 out of 10 houses put lights up for the year. And of all the "big" displays out there. About 80% of them are very gaudy looking. It's mostly "Keep up with the Jones" crowd that like to brag about how many light they have up. Of the remaining 20%, they take the time to put their lights up in a way that looks really nice.

I have, or at least it seems to me there are more. I'm attributing it to the falling price of LED lights, combined with the very low cost to operate them.

Yes, But LED's have one major drawback. They flicker because they don't put power filtering electronics on them and thus, get the raw AC current feed into them and that causes them to flicker.

This year, rather to my own surprise, I bought a string of lights and coiled it around my porch pillar. It was affordable and they are pretty. I'm not keeping up with the Joneses,

I used to live in a small town in Oregon back in the 70's and about 2 out of 3 people put lights up for the year. All they really did was put a couple of the big c9 type lights string on the trim of their houses. Nothing fancy really. They did have Fairy lights back then but they weren't very reliable. They were the kind that if one bulb went out, the whole string went out.

 

[Kalinychta]

Do not go gentle into that good night!

Nice way to quote Dylan Thomas. Haha!

 

[tducey]

I like Christmas lights as well. We drove around tonight to see them.