Christmas Lights

We've always liked to ride around neighborhoods and check out the Christmas decorations.  Back in the old days when we used to decorate the house inside and out, it seemed to always be a very cold and windy day when it was time to put up the Christmas lights.  We would buy new lights each year to add to the existing stock, but they changed the light strings so many times that we couldn't keep a large workable set.  Does anyone remember bubble lights?  Well, they are back in fashion.

I usually put the lights on the bushes around the house and in the lower branches of the trees.  Then, we always had to have 3-4 strings running down the gutters.  At first I would go out and turn on the lights at sundown then turn them off around 11pm just before bed.  Finally I wised up and bought a timer that went on at sunset and turned off around midnight.  

Decorating the inside of the house was another story.  When we first got married Gerry wanted the old leaded icicles spaced about 1/2 inch apart on every branch of the tree.  Once that was finished (2-3 days), then we could put the light bulbs on the tree, the Angel on top and then the rest of the ornaments would go up.  As you can imagine, decorating the tree wasn't taken lightly in the Clark household.  None of our children have carried on this tradition.

The decorating of lawns seems to be a much bigger deal now with all the electric deer, sleighs, santas, elfs all the other things available now.  Whole neighborhoods get together and have set rules on what can be put up and when.  I think I prefer the old way and do what you can when you can.

It is easier to see the finished product back east where homes don't have walls around them like out here in the Southwest.  In either case, it is nice to see the outside decorations.