Tuesday, December 16, 2008

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.

10 comments:

  1. That's nice. (my short comment)

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  2. It has nothing to do with understatement, you just don't want to get out of that fluffy chair and clime a latter. Is that picture of the over decorated house near you? Where?

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  3. I know that the last comment wasn't really from a skewl teecher. Clime a latter?

    Actually the photo I took of the actual house didn't turn out because as I was taking it Chandler yanked on the leash and caused the camera to go flying through the air and hit the ground hard. There may be a few less photos of me and Mark for a while. The house I wanted a photo of is over on 16th Avenue.

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  4. I was talking about a mormon.

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  5. This is why you have to make decorating a party. You invite friends over and have everyone decorate. Then serve spirts and finger food as a reward. In the evening you can all sit around and enjoy the fruits who have labored...er..fruits of your labor.

    hehe

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  6. Smarty pants dance, Smarty pants dance, Garet does the Smarty pants dance.

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  7. Okay, Garet watched "Funniest Home Videos" on Sunday! Best "smartie-pants dance "ever!

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  8. Oh my god there are some terrible outdoor Christmas decorations going on near me at the mo-

    Pics coming soon, and some places I wonder how they can concentrate with the masses of blinking lights going on all over there windows and trees!

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  9. First, blow-up Santa is powered by an electrical motor which lights him up and blows air into him. They probably turn it off during the day since they don't need to have him lit. I do agree that he looks pretty bad flopped over like that.

    Second, how long must it take to put all those damn lights up, and then have to take them all down again????/

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