Christmas Lights

SWMBO and the KWMBO talked me into icicle lights last year. For the record, I HATE ladders....we have a rancher. Apparently the clips are only meant for 1yr.

Had some left over from last year but it wasnt enough. Of course the ones the bridal unit bought werent the same or they didjnt make em

at any rate, i finished em w/ some storm king, SN celebration and the FF Abby Dubel.

Heading out now for some more:cross:

Anyone else hanging lights?

ah yes, the ever popular icicle lights... we hung up ours last week...

i feel you pain/joy

one year I'm going Clark Griswold.

brauhaus said:

one year I'm going Clark Griswold.

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Me too. I keep telling my wife I'm getting a 12-foot tree one year. Of course, our house only has 9 foot ceilings. No problem for me. I'll cut a hole in the ceiling and put the top of tree in our bedroom.

That would be cool.

Hey shecky what are you going to use to decorate the couch on your porch?

Haven't decided what to do this year. Every year it's something different. Last year I did runway lights and had a snoopy plane.

Saccharomyces said:

Hey shecky what are you going to use to decorate the couch on your porch?

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Figure I might throw a couple of reindeer figurines on it, arrange them in some sort of copulating position and throw alternating red and green spotlights on them.

Actually, outdoor lights are too much work. Just a few, embedded in garland, along the railings on the front stoop. All white lights in the house, but only on the tree.

I have been told that Sunday I will begin bringing down some of the nine Rubbermaids full of my wife's Christmas decorations. Oh joy.

I decorate my tree, not my house. I hate ladders, and only use them to clean out my gutters the requisite twice per year.

Never liked holiday lights much - Other people see beauty, I see senseless use of electricity.

But I'm also a bit of a Grinch. I enforce a n + 1 light rule in my house. That being, there should never be more than n + 1 light fixtures in use, illuminated, at any given time, where n is the number of people currently present in the house.

Having a party? 10 people = 11 lights, wheeee! At home alone? 2 lights. Turn a new one on, turn the old one off.

I'm a real blast to hang out with.

This is from last year but it shows how I feel about Christmas lights.

Evets said:

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Chriso said:

But I'm also a bit of a Grinch. I enforce a n + 1 light rule in my house. That being, there should never be more than n + 1 light fixtures in use, illuminated, at any given time, where n is the number of people currently present in the house.

Having a party? 10 people = 11 lights, wheeee! At home alone? 2 lights. Turn a new one on, turn the old one off.

I'm a real blast to hang out with.

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My wife and I have the same rule. It keeps the bill down and the bulbs going longer. What is the point in leaving the bathroom light on upstairs if we are watching a movie together downstairs?

Addendum to your rule: If everyone is in the same room (i.e. watching a movie) only 1 room needs to be lit!

We put more effort into decorations hanging on the tree instead of lights. But we are both conservative when it comes to excess. Our tree is semi-fake and stands ~5' tall. That is enough for us, as we have a non-commercial view of Christmas.

Semi-fake?

I need to go to the storage unit this weekend or next. Not looking forward to it at all. Probably two truckloads of decorations. Plus we have to figure out where to put the XMAS tree this year as the spot it was in last year is now decorated with the bigscreen.

Parker36 said:

Semi-fake?

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Ok I will explain.

4 yrs ago, just before I married my wife, I went onto her parents property (with permission and collected a cedar trunk that was cut and dried out. Cleaned off the limbs and bark. Sanded, stained, and sealed. Drilled a buncha' holes and upward angles. Insert fake branches from Hobby Lobby. Done! The center is real, the outside is fake: Semi-fake.

I copied ones that were in Hobby Lobby that year. Somewhat Charlie Brownish, but better. And the base is permanently attached.

Convenient and cheap.

We're doing a tree, and then the 3 windows that face the street will probably get lights. That's it.

No boxes of christmas decorations that are out for 1 month and stored for 11 (what a waste of money, no less!) If someone thinks I'm a grinch because I don't clutter my house with crap that nobody cares about and ups my electricity bill, maybe I am, either way, I don't care.

Laurel said:

We're doing a tree, and then the 3 windows that face the street will probably get lights. That's it.

No boxes of christmas decorations that are out for 1 month and stored for 11 (what a waste of money, no less!) If someone thinks I'm a grinch because I don't clutter my house with crap that nobody cares about and ups my electricity bill, maybe I am, either way, I don't care.

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Grinch! Grinch! You mean you don't have the crappy ornaments you made in 3rd grade like I do? I mean, that my mom still has that I don't ever put up, or something....

No lights this year. Grinch (me) has a good excuse ($$$) this year... Did it ONE year and saw a pretty healthy spike in the electric bill (bastards!) Sure was purdy though....

Wanna help me think of excuses for when money isn't so tight? ;-) Its not the putting up thats an issue, it's the taking down (I think mine came down somewhere around june...

Tree is up, lights and garland thingy over fire-place, battery operated candles in windows, a few paintings wrapped like presents hanging, reef on the front door. Also, various other things are all over the place. Wife has lots of lights for me to put up outside but, I told here we are going to wait for the 1st week of December. She was ok with that. Also, this year I bought these sweet timers from Home Depot for $5.50 per and will be using them. Should save me quite a bit on my electric bill.

Laurel said:

We're doing a tree, and then the 3 windows that face the street will probably get lights. That's it.

No boxes of christmas decorations that are out for 1 month and stored for 11 (what a waste of money, no less!) If someone thinks I'm a grinch because I don't clutter my house with crap that nobody cares about and ups my electricity bill, maybe I am, either way, I don't care.

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Bah humbug.

Yesterday I took six of my wife's nine Rubbermaids full of winter/Christmas stuff and brought them downstairs. It was quite festive around here in a few hours.

F*cking ********* icicle lights. Hate 'em. HATE 'EM!

holy smokes! looks like I created a **** stom At any rate, while I complain about it, I do like the way that it looks. The kids and wife like it too.

Picked our tree Saturday, decorated it yesterday. I need a day off just to recoup from the weekend....and there wasnt that much beer involved

A couple of wreaths and spot lights (CFL) on the house. Inexpensive, efficient and easy to install. I don't want to install strings of lights and SWMBO doesn't like the look so it works out well.

However our tree is loaded with a variety of ornaments collected over the years, including plenty from my school years. They do bring back the memories.

Craig

Evan! said:

F*cking ********* icicle lights. Hate 'em. HATE 'EM!

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That's the happy holiday spirit Evan!

Ya know Clark, those lights aren't twinkling...

Evan! said:

F*cking ********* icicle lights. Hate 'em. HATE 'EM!

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Amen! That's why I still have a set of the C7 colored lights on green wires. Put those bad boys on the gutter and let the yuppies with icicle lights weep.

Evan! said:

F*cking ********* icicle lights. Hate 'em. HATE 'EM!

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Amen brotha.

My hatred of those tanglewebbed icicle lights has translated over to all outdoor lighting and decorating.

To make it worse, my D-bag neighbor across the street hires someone to come out and hang his friggin lights.

Every year he brags about how "easy" it was to put up his lights.

Every year I compliment him on his DIY skills and ask when I'm going to see the wipe-your-ass-on-wheels truck show up to clean him up after he poos.

WOW - I just saw a few signs up this year for Light Hanging services.... that was a new one to me, I never realized you could hire someone to do it. I mean, sure - of COURSE you can hire someone...... but I never realized people ACTUALLY do it.

Being that SWMBO is reading over my shoulder.... I don't know how many lights we'll be putting up. I'm sure I'll find out soon.

My neighbor might as well be Clark Griswold. I can actually turn the lights completely off in my house and still see to read a book in my kitchen because of the insanely bright glow coming from my neighbor's overly extravagant Christmas display. SWMBO says, "It looks like Christmas threw up all over their yard!" Don't get me wrong, I love the holiday season, but this guy is just too much.



The other day, he added a couple more "decorations." I tried to get a better angle so that the new additions don't drown against the blindingly brilliant background of holiday shenanigans he calls "Christmas spirit." We've taken to calling them the "Christmas peepees." You be the judge:

Just be glad he doesn't have the lights synchronized to music. Nothing more fun than a yard of strobe lights.

We do our front porch in garland, white lights and red bows. Took all of 20 minutes to hang this year as everything was still wound together from last year.

Ooooh, but they DO blink in what appears to be an attempt at musical synchronicity... Fortunately, the music is pretty quiet. Unfortunately, the system is likely very cheap, so the lights go ape$hit.

I despise holiday lights, and despite SWMBO's prodding I absolutely refuse to put them up.

A buddy of mine, however, is Clark W. Griswold reincarnated. This video is from last year. He has since replaced all of the original lights with LED's, and added a few thousand more. I am convinced that from late November to early January, his house can be seen from space .