So Soon!

Wow! So many people have their Christmas lights up and lit already! Seems to be mostly the people with extravagant displays who are lit up now. That may be a function of the weather: we've had over a week of clear, dry weather. A few days have been too windy to put stuff up, and it's been in the 40s (F) the last few days, but overall good light assembly weather.

I grew up with a much different model. We generally didn't decorate for Christmas until the weekend before the day (we kids were a bit bummed the years Christmas fell on Monday!) and lights were lit from decorating day through January 1. My mother was into understatement, so we only had the tripod "candles" (yellow-orange bulbs) in the front windows and a (plain white) spotlight on the door wreath. Our Christmas tree was in the family room in the back of the house, so it didn't affect our outdoor display.

Now I don't decorate at all. I wonder about the electric bills of the elaborate display houses. I know some of the most modern lights are cheap to run, but some of these big displays probably took years to acquire. I doubt they are all new-style lights.