Christmas Lights

I have seen lots of houses with Christmas lights up but have been more than a little surprised that it was not at the intensity I expected. We have all no doubt seen stories of the fantastic displays Americans put up when it comes to Christmas. Whilst not every house has a light display, there are many of them, but none seemed to be as spectacular as I expected. In many instances it is a range of coloured lights flashing on and off, sometimes to music, that cover not just the front of the house, but much of the front garden as well. In some cases it is merely white lights but there are reindeer, Christmas figures and lots of lights spelling our messages. I have also seen many large inflatable Santa's and Snowmen. I even saw one house that had lights across the front garden, the drive way, up the side of the house and across the roof as well.

Then it hit me.

In Australia and I seem to recall in England, Christmas lights at the front of houses was not uncommon, but it often involved some coloured lights in windows or on doors. Then there were the odd houses that had special displays. In Glenwood where I used to live in Sydney, some house looked so good people used to come and visit and bring children to look at the incredible displays. Those houses stood out and were regarded as spectacular, which is why I was puzzled at the displays here.

There are so many houses with light displays and they don't stand out. However I have realised that if you transported any one of these houses to either England or Australia, they would stand out and would make what I used to call spectacular look ordinary. In other words, what I thought was special, is ordinary here and so does not stand out. So, the displays are here but they are so common that you tend to forget how fantastic they are compared to what was considered normal back in Aus. I must admit that you can buy all sorts of lights and devices in shops to light up your house. I just don't want to think about ow much it all costs, both to set up and then to run, let alone the time and effort involved.

The thing these days is to have a computer controlled display linked with some music. I have seen examples on the web but have yet to see any in the flesh as it were. I guess it is just a matter of time.

Examples of what I mean can be found at the following address:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8290192083117426204