Christmas Lights
September 3rd, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed
Price: $11.99 USD
Lighting up Christmas and Beyond
It would seem that Christmas lights are no longer considered to be exclusive to Christmas. A few years ago, if you left your Christmas lights up into the New Year your family and neighbours would make fun of you. Those days have long gone. Many houses in our street are still adorned with stalactites of light strings when I’m beginning to have problems remembering what gifts I received for Christmas. Nobody seems to make any comment one way or the other.
Illuminating Christmas Habits
At college I used strings of Xmas lights to decorate my apartment and many other students did the same in their dorm rooms. Lots of the houses in the student neighbourhoods had Christmas lights dangling outside their homes all year round. It made for an attractive addition to otherwise run-down looking domiciles.
No Corner Untouched by Christmas
In my family we go all-out every Christmas and adorn every square inch of our house with Christmas decorations. We use several different colours of lights outside and usually have a few free-standing decorations in our front yard. Our house was always the most expressive during the holiday season and in a relatively new neighbourhood our neighbours tended to be more conservative than those in our past neighbourhoods. Our next-door neighbours never put up Christmas lights at all so we assumed that they did not celebrate Christmas.
The Low-key Approach to Christmas
We lived next door to them for nearly 10 years before we found out that they did indeed celebrate Christmas; just not the way we did. You can decorate your home with Christmas lights and still retain a low-key appearance. Many people choose to use all white Christmas lights if they think that coloured lights are a little tacky.
Price: $12.95 USD
Don’t Forget Candlelight
When it comes to holidays or the Christmas spirit in general we believe the more the merrier. Much like the scenes we all know and love from movie favourites, such as National Lampoon’s Christmas, an array of Christmas lights can bring much cheer to all those who view them. In Denmark, people are wild about candlelight - especially Christmas candlelight. Almost all homes are strewn with ‘living lights’ at Christmas. You can see the flames flickering behind the curtains during the winter months. There is nothing cosier than a Christmas display lit by living Christmas candlelight.
From Candlelight to Electric Light
Things are beginning to change in Denmark. For years, we have been shown pictures from the U.S.A. of extravagantly decorated houses ablaze with multicoloured electric light while we languished in the semi-darkness of our cosy candlelight. However, if you want to illuminate the outside of your house, you can’t rely on candles - and you won’t be able to insure your house if you do. Sales of Xmas lights are on the rise. I think that the current generation have fond childhood memories of those shots of American streets at Christmas, and have decided to give their own children something equally spectacular but a little closer to home to remember. It seems to be a matter of balancing the children’s awe and wonder with the electricity bill. Christmas lights are destined to light up the smiles of your children and your local electricity company.
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Eoin Beckett is a freelance author and editor. Although he stems from Ireland, he currently lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. Read more about Christmas Lights at Juletide - the ancient and magical word for Christmas.
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