Guilty Pleasures, Lifestyle Change

Christmas Light Fight

My wife and I were already out looking at Christmas Lights on Friday night. The sun sets at about 4:30pm here in early December, so we got some hot cocoa at Starbucks, and enjoyed the red, green, and white glow of lights, blow molds, and inflatables.

It’s an amazing amount of work that people put into these residential displays. Especially here in Minnesota where the temperatures have been well below freezing since last Wednesday.

I was smart enough to get some lights up a couple of weeks ago. The first nice day after Halloween will find me putting spruce tips in the window boxes and stringing a couple trees. it’s part of my Holiday Schedule.

Altogether we put up about 12-15 strings of 100-lights outside. They are all white and that’s enough for me. We also have a light-up snowman in the back yard. He’s about 6-7’ tall. He greets people on the walking path our house backs up to.

My wife has me on a strict limit when it comes to Christmas lights. She knows I would be one of those retired guys on ABC’s ‘Christmas Light Fight’ if given the chance. A big display “you can see from outer space” like Homer Simpson once attempted.

I’ve even tried to talk her into just one Christmas inflatable, but to no avail. She knows I would buy a giant, 20-foot, Santa Claus quicker than you can say “Kris Kringle”.

That hasn’t stopped me inside. Officially, we have two Christmas trees, but I’ve managed two other “auxiliary evergreen displays”. One has my collection of Shiny Brites. We host a couple big Christmas parties each year for friends, families, and neighbors, and the auxiliary evergreen displays look great.

We haven’t gotten any holiday decorations for our new Florida vacation condo yet. That’ll have to wait. We’ll be down there for only a week this month – and without any visitors. So, there’s no real need to deck the halls right now.

How festive do you get with holiday lights? More or less since you’ve been retired?

Images: (c) MrFireStation.com

5 thoughts on “Christmas Light Fight”

  1. https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipNxlMM8ZKDCk1z08xbjVJlcHOzTA-d04vPnbqa7

    Hopefully your are able to see this photo I took of a house with the most extreme level of decoration ever. They make a similar effort for Halloween. You can use to photo to sell your wife that you are not getting carried away with the decorations.

    I have been offline due to Franklin Fire. We could see the smoke from our house, but never really smelled it, which meant the winds were in our favor. SCE cut out power.

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    1. Wow – I wasn’t aware of the fire. Just looked it up. Burned for 10 days before it was controlled? You stayed clear of the damage?

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      1. This one was not that bad. Only nine houses burned. The closest call I had was in 1993 when the fire department camped overnight in my driveway and field in front of my house. They back fired my backyard. Ever since, I have been a believer and cut everything that poses a fire risk to assure that there are no more back fires in my backyard.

        I found flares in my backyard when doing the next season’s brush cutting.

        Here is an excellent resource that is 300 yards away from my house that will douse my house with tens of thousands of water in minutes if a fire is approaching. https://69bravo.com/

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  2. Here is a story that I think you will like. It is about how Shiny Bright Ornaments started being manufactured in the US during WW II in a small town in Pennsylvania. The ornaments originally come from Germany and were a boutique item. US mass merchants changed this. Shiny Bright Ornaments were developed before electric lighting to brighten up dark winters.

    https://print.theepochtimes.com/p/b-travel/12-20-24/a/how-a-small-american-town-saved-christmas-in-america/6464/1795277/59477299?mainissue=1795273

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