07 December 2007

Outdoor Christmas Decorations

Let's discuss Christmas lights and outdoor Christmas decorations. Maybe I am a bit of an outdoor-Christmas-decorations snob. That doesn't bother me. I have rather strong feelings about decorating your house for Christmas.

First of all, if you want to go gung-ho crazy for Christmas, do it inside your house so you don't subject your neighbors to your tacky decorations or ridiculous lights.

With that said, I don't think all decorations are tacky, and most lights are not either. I'll just give you a list of things I detest:
  • Lights strung poorly. If you are going to hang them on your house, make them hang straight. Your roof is straight. Pull your lights tightly and secure them well so that they will be straight too.
  • Don't leave your lights up. ESPECIALLY if they are icicle lights. So tacky.
  • Lights on the house are pretty much all you need. I prefer them to be all in one color, but I don't necessarily think multi-colored lights are tacky.
  • If you insist on putting lights on your trees, please do it Temple Square style, as seen here-
  • Notice how the lights are strung around each, individual branch? It's a lot of work, yes. But if you are going to do it, you may as well do it right.
  • And finally. Lawn ornaments. Most are just not worth having. ESPECIALLY the inflatable kind. They look cheap. Do they cost cheap? No. This is something I don't understand.
I guess the best option for me is to live somewhere that regulates such things. Unfortunately, I don't right now, so I have to see things like an inflatable Santa riding a motorcycle with two reindeer on the back. Classy. (This isn't the exact image, but it's close).

4 comments:

Janssen said...

I am so so so with you on the tacky lawn ornaments. NO ONE NEEDS A GIANT SNOWGLOBE ON THEIR FRONT LAWN!

Also, do not leave your lights up until June. Or even February. And for heaven's sake, if you do leave them up until then, dont' keep turning them on!

Anonymous said...

Please change your blog title to "I'm a Scrooge, BAH HUM BUG. com"
And excuse me while I go add another strand of poorly installed lights!
TIC

Anonymous said...

Maybe thats why I had so much trouble getting you to help put up the out side ligths all the years you were home.

Noelle said...

I have just been thinking about this very issue with the lawn ornaments recently. For some reason, people especially like to have inflatable snowmen and Santa Clauses on their lawn around here in the midwest. SO tacky. My favorite though, is when you drive by day after day and they are blown over on their side. It's windy enough that they won't even stay standing up!