Holiday Decorations

[steve88]

Do many of you guys do holiday decorations? From october thru december.

 

[cantlogin]

Not me.

 

[Martha]

I love the pagan beauty of all the lights against the darkness. I love it when people do decorations.

I picked up a couple of interesting light strings from Ikea. Otherwise, we don't do anything.

 

[Moemg]

I put out a few pumpkins and a witch in October .In late November I decorate the whole house for christmas . Wreaths ,garlands ,tree,village , candles ,santa cookie jar ,etc.,etc.. I am paring down and giving my daughter the dickens village and each year I say smaller tree and I still end up with a giant balsam in my living room . It does look nice with the white lights and the view of the bay behind it .

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

In my old neighborhood, one of the guys spent months putting up tens of thousands of dollars worth of lights and decorations. It looked like Santas Playground at the mall of america by the time he was done. Their electric bill jumped $600 extra per month during november/december. It was pretty pointless to do anything more than a token string of lights with that across the street from me.

Cant really see my new house very well from the street, so again unless I buy some of those giant blow up things and put them down by the street, aint gonna matter.

My SIL burned down half of their house with some decorative candles last year, so I think decorating around the in-laws is going to be pretty sparse this year.

 

[Goonie]

In my old neighborhood, one of the guys spent months putting up tens of thousands of dollars worth of lights and decorations. It looked like Santas Playground at the mall of america by the time he was done. Their electric bill jumped $600 extra per month during november/december.

Here's one that I first saw on a Chicago news broadcast a few years ago. The Christmas Light Display of the Parcell Family of Geneva, IL website says "....our display of almost 50,000 lights is completely computerized and the lights are synchronized to music being broadcast on our low power FM transmitter." Twas The Night Before

As for our own decorating, for halloween we have an artificial Jack-O-Latern with a light inside of it. For Christmas we have a 4' fiber-optic tree in the living room, a lit-up snowman on the front porch, and a spiral, light-tube tree on the patio. We also put up a few other small decorations in the house for Christmas. My Mom also has a wreath in the kitchen that she decorate for the different holidays and season changes throughout the year....nothing fancy or extravagant.... just something to do.

 

[UncleHoney]

We get carried away just a little at Christmas, on the inside mostly.

 

[happy2bretired]

I put up less and less each year. I might not put up any Christmas decorations this year. My neighber is putting up her outside Christmas lights TODAY. Her deflated Halloween decoration will come to life again after dark. Most of my neighbors decorate so I just enjoy theirs.

 

[bssc]

We put up a flag but a lot of my neighbors put out thousands of lights. It is quite amazing.

 

[W2R]

When my daughter was a toddler, we put a string of large Christmas lights around the eaves, for her benefit. The wonder of a little girl when she sees the lights and says "pretty!" with a great big amazed smile is really great to see. We also carved a pumpkin for Hallowe'en and so on.

Now that she is 29 and living 2000 miles away, I do not put out holiday decorations! To be frank, that would be silly and expensive. Now, if I customarily had a couple of hundred people over for holiday parties, I could see the point of it. But I don't, and I won't.

 

[Khan]

I don't do any decorations for any holidays. Used to do Halloween pumpkins.

A few miles away:

Halloween Light Display In Beavercreek - Video - WHIO Dayton

 

[TexasGal]

UncleHoney, love the picture!

I don't do much outside but the inside of my house is a wonderland by early December! Only do Christmas decorations, not any other holiday.

TG

 

[Nords]

We have a lighted pumpkin and a fiber-optic Christmas tree. Otherwise all the decorations are our kid's elementary-school craft projects.

HGTV has entire shows dedicated to people's holiday decorations. They literally spend months of planning and thousands of dollars, even to the point of bringing in extra (dedicated) 240V utility lines. An ER'd engineer can do a lot of damage with a few servers and unlimited access to power tools & electronics supplies. Imagine if they just recorded the result on video and donated the next few years' expenses to charity.

I can't believe the HGTV "White House Christmas" shows. Our tax dollars at work, folks! I wish they'd put a running $$$$ total in the corner of the screen...

 

[Fireup2020]

There are 4 gourds on the dining room table between the candles that normally live there.

Moderate holiday decor

 

[Darryl]

Pumpkins and a few assorted items for Halloween and Lights in the trees outside for Christmas with a bit inside too.

 

[Moemg]

When I travel I always bring home a christmas ornament .So my tree is a reminder of all my travels plus ornaments from my children. I'm a sentimental fool !

 

[Ronstar]

I'm going to minimize our outside decorations as much as possible - maybe candycanes and 3 lighted trees. Its usually a nightmare to take this stuff down in January. My wife decorates the inside with tree/ornaments and a few snowman and other decorations.

I don't understand why a divorced friend of mine living alone "fully" decorated the inside of his house for Halloween with his front yard full of inflatable pumpkins and other stuff.

 

[W2R]

I don't understand why a divorced friend of mine living alone "fully" decorated the inside of his house for Halloween with his front yard full of inflatable pumpkins and other stuff.

LOL!! I don't decorate at all, and I turn out the lights and "hide" on Hallowe'en, and don't answer the door. Kids go to Hallowe'en parties more than trick-or-treating these days, anyway, so I don't feel too much like a grinch. I am divorced and living alone as well.

 

[KB]

I have a fall wreath that I put up in October, and a Christmas one for December.
I do put some pumpkins on the front porch between my potted plants, and a bowl of interesting gourds on the counter.

For Christmas, I put up lights on the front of the house with a timer to have them on from dark to about midnight. My kids gave me some lighted reindeer to replace the ones stolen at our last house. I put them in the backyard at this house. I have a wrought iron fence, so the people in the neighborhood behind me can see them.

I also have a 5 foot nutcracker I put on my front porch in December. Anything Christmas comes down on New years day.

 

[Goonie]

....and I turn out the lights and "hide" on Hallowe'en, and don't answer the door. Kids go to Hallowe'en parties more than trick-or-treating these days, anyway, so I don't feel too much like a grinch.

We did that last year. We'd gone out for dinner, and came home about half way through trick-or-treat hours, so we just left the lights off and watched TV. We didn't feel guilty at all! It used to be that the kids (and parents with the younger ones) would WALK through the neighborhoods and go door to door. But the last few years there have been VERY FEW hoofing it, while the majority raid the neighborhoods by the [-]CAR[/-] VAN load! I figure if the kids want their parents to haul their lazy butts around to mooch candy, then they can just drive to the grocery store or Wally-World and buy their own treats!

This Grinch has no treats for the little beggars this year!

Bah-Humbug!!!

 

[retire@40]

It's nice to see Christmas decoration when they are done in moderation and with some style.

There's a lot of winter darkness here in the northeast and some Christmas lights and decorations keep the spirits bright.

I do my part to cheer up the neighborhood, along with panettone and shots of sambuca for visitors.

 

[W2R]

We did that last year. We'd gone out for dinner, and came home about half way through trick-or-treat hours, so we just left the lights off and watched TV. We didn't feel guilty at all! It used to be that the kids (and parents with the younger ones) would WALK through the neighborhoods and go door to door. But the last few years there have been VERY FEW hoofing it, while the majority raid the neighborhoods by the [-]CAR[/-] VAN load! I figure if the kids want their parents to haul their lazy butts around to mooch candy, then they can just drive to the grocery store or Wally-World and buy their own treats!

This Grinch has no treats for the little beggars this year!

Bah-Humbug!!!

Me either! LOL Besides, I don't need a lot of candy sitting around my house for weeks, beckoning... keeping fit and trim is hard enough, without adding that temptation!

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Worst case scenario here. I bought a huge bag of halloween candy when costco first put them out about a month ago.

Now we're out of candy, and due to our increased fatness it'll be harder to hide from the trick or treaters. I'm thinking 4 quarts of oil on the steep driveway and if any make it up to the door, we'll send the dogs out after them.

 

[Moemg]

No need to hide here by the time the little trick or treaters made it up the three flights of stairs they'd be looking for their inhalers .

 

[happy2bretired]

I'm "hiding" this year too. My dog would go crazy every time the doorbell would ring and I don't want left over candy.