Christmas Lights

Best part about the Christmas season?

Christmas lights, hands down.

I absolutely LOVE Christmas lights! I've spent at least 20 minutes every night during the last week just sitting in my front room of our house, with all the normal lights off, basking in the glowing Christmas tree lights and the lights in our windows. It's the ultimate stress-reliever, I do believe.

Last night, I decided I wanted to go look at Christmas lights around my neighborhood, so I recruited a friend to go for a walk and check out the surrounding homes. She one-upped me and suggested we drive around town and get more lights in a warmer environment. I was quickly persuaded to her way of thinking.

We scoured the streets for potential jackpots, anticipating greatness from some of the particularly grand and enormous manors interpersed around the neighborhoods. Surprisingly, those houses were usually the lamest ones, with little to no lights. It would seem that there aren't many companies out here that put up people's lights, though it is a growing field of industry in the West.

Instead, most of these great estates had the candles in each of the windows. Though disappointed by the lack of lighting curb appeal, the candles seemed really fitting for old, oversized homes. The time period look was the way to go. The houses looked how they might've when they were first built - no electricity, and no light but for solitary candles to light one's way. It was kind of gothic romantic in a way, so I tempered some of my disappointment with historical appreciation.

But we did see some great lightwork among the other homes we passed. There were a lot of lit up penguins, deer, and snowmen; quite a few blow-up Santas waving at us as we passed; and a few trains and sleighs. A few places had the festive one string of lights hung randomly over a bush or doorstep out of necessity. More and more places went retro with the giant lightbulb strings, which I rather liked for their quirkiness.

The best one, though, was a house we stopped at to fully appreciate. It had a nativity lit up in the yard (because it was actually made with lights - it wasn't just hit with a spotlight or something simple). And directly above it was a giant, shining star, with strands of racing lights moving down from the star to the people. So basically, Mary and Joseph, and the baby Jesus, were all being sprayed with starbeams that were constant, quick, and energetic. It was a wonderful sight.

Sadly, there was nothing super over-the-top or outrageous, but we'll go looking for them again next week. There's got to be some kooky lights somewhere. But last night was still so fun, the lights were still great. And then we went back to my friend's house, made hot chocolate and popped some popcorn (popcorn makers may very well be the best thing in the world) and settled in to watch A Muppet Christmas Carol - best rendition of Dickens's classic Holiday story, I'm convinced of it.