I love Christmas Lights.
Where I used to live, on the gentrified side of town, most of the displays were blandly tasteful. Usually one color with a sort of understated ‘we participate’ theme. The trees are carefully wrapped with lights and they never BLINK. There is nothing so tacky as the blink. Many conform to an unstated standard. This standard seems to be largely based on the idea that you shouldn’t be Clark Grizwold.
They are pretty. But no one does a drive by.
Down the street from where I used to live there was a man who thought he was a Grizwold. But his anal obsessiveness probably held him back. All his lights were white. Of uniform size. And they were tacked to boards in PERFECT lines. No bauble of lights pointing up and down, no small sags in a line. These lights marched perfectly around the whole of his lawn and driveway, around each window and framed the edge of the roof. In ruler edge straightness.
Now I live on the other side of town. And there is a house down the street that nearly buckled under the Halloween decorations it put up. Clark Grizwold would have been jealous of this display. And when I saw it, I KNEW that Christmas was going to be a thing worth seeing.
And I was right. This household worships at the shrine of Grizwold. Nothing so easy as glowing blowup decorations. Nope. A full size manger scene. Camels & Magi in lights. There is even a multilayered light birthday cake for Jesus. And naturally all of the house is bedecked in large colored lights. I laughed with glee when I saw it. People drive by for this one. Its on a list somewhere of places to see Christmas Lights.
I do appreciate both kinds. The House Beautiful Lights and the Griswold Heros. But my heart will always be for the Griswold Hero.
It's a Thought 