My Electric Bill Is What??!!

Some people treat Christmas like they are competing in the Olympics, and go all out trying to compete with their neighbors decorating the house. That's why I firmly believe that Christmas should be celebrated only once every four years. It would be just about enough time for me to recover from Christmas overkill.

At our old house on Ravinia Drive, my dad's outdoor holiday decorating consisted of one string of the large bulb, Christmas lights, on the little front porch. That was it. That, and the festively decorated tree in the large window at the front of the house were the extent of Christmas cheer visible from the street. I like that low key approach to Christmas decorating, and I honor my dad every year by stringing one strand of lights down the length of my front porch where they generally stay until a summer storm blows them down.

Some people like to put up a little more than that, like the people down the street from me who have lights and a blow up Santa in the front of their house. It's bad enough that it looks like a cheap storefront display, but apparently Santa has a slow leak and by the time I take Chandler for his walkies every afternoon, Santa is deflated and doubled over. Another house near here looks like it's sitting in the middle of the Kmart Christmas department. It is tacky and grossly overdone. I'm sure that it is clearly visible from outer space, and if you drive by it without sunglasses, be careful, you just might burn your eyes out.