Well, all my decorations are out and I’ve sorted through what I’m using this year and what I’m not. I am behind compared to most of the neighbourhood and we pretty much gave up on doing the outside. Not only have we been too busy, we’re still paying two electrical bills and besides – it’s cold out there and Ron would no doubt make me help.
The houses around us are all decked out, and thankfully the one right across from us is tasteful. The one down the raod? Not so much. Seems they have a whole collections of the large inflatable yard… things. There’s at least five of them – a large snow globe, a carosel, a Grinch, a Santa and a Santa on a tractor. During the day, they are deflated and sad. The house is also lit up like a… well, you know.
Further on down is a house with one of those garden islands near the road. You know what I mean – a long flowing expanse of lawn with a small circular garden. This one is out by the road. Someone decided to decorate it, and what is normally a small slice of “country” that speeds by, is turned into a small and confusing pile of lights on the ground at night. I managed to get a glimpse in daylight and as a passenger to figure out there’s a wreath there, barely indistinguisable on the brown chips and with a green bow.
Then we drove through Centreville. They have lighted fuzzy ornaments on the poles – all snowflakes. We call them “special” snowflakes. What is it with cities and towns that can’t quite scrape up the budget for decent lights for these things? We passed by at least ten with more than half the lights out, then the next one seems to have twice the allocation of lights in general, and all of them were on. Special indeed.
Even better was the yard we passed with the tractor, parked in the yard, all strung up in lights for the season.
Way up the road in the next community, was something we first saw on our way home from Aunt Boo’s last week. Stunning enough in daylight, the new park bandstand (there’s no band, and we’re in farm country) is festooned with garland and man-high fat foil tinsel candy canes at the path entrance. At night? Oh, at night it is a spectacle to see. Once the seizures stopped, we realized someone had gone to town with every kind of lighting arrangement they could find in all colors available.
And set it on blink.
Last night Ron and I were near it again and had to park across the street. It was then we realized a new horror: it had music blaring too.
I’m gonna see if I can get video.
(Feel free to share holiday deocrating horrors in the comments. )
We used to have a few sets of musical lights. Don like to turn the “chase” setting all the way up on high and run BOTH music boxes – there was no way to sync them, so it sounded awful. It was completely obnoxious.
The neighbors behind us (the ones with tons of “stuff” in their yard) have an equally bad looking front yard now too – it is full of red light-up candy canes, red lights on the house, red lights on the bushes, red lights…everywhere!! It’s painful to look at.
*SNORT* “special snowflakes” LMAO!! My tiny little un-town has no light pole decorations, but I drove through a small town near where I grew up tonight that was decked out in the weirdest, dirtiest, saddest looking fuzzy wire lighted santas I’ve ever seen in my life. I wanted to write a letter of sympathy to the city council.
On a trip to Minnesota to visit relatives one year, we drove through this town in northern Iowa with MOVING decorations on their poles. Little elves that, with lighted legs flashing on and off, were supposed to look like they were dancing (I think), but reminded me of a child having a stomping-up-and-down tantrum. My husband said, “Oh look, pole dancers!”
A couple of years ago (I forget even how long), my neighbor put up a ginormous cross made of leftover boards, wrapped in huge coils with lights. Fit right in with the rest of the weridness in his garden (also an island close to the road), like old boots upside down on metal fence poles, some old tractor parts and the like. They liked it so much, they left it up after Christmas. And there it’s been, lighted up every night, in January or June, ever since.