The Meaning of Lights

I would like to genuinely thank my neighbors, many of whom went to great lengths to decorate their houses and porches with holiday string lights and variants thereof. I like to think that it is a creative and caring, if arguably excessive, behavior. Even though I myself have difficulty being excessive- and probably because of this- I quite admire excess.

My across-the-street neighbors approached their display traditionally but with a dose of glamour! On the one hand they trimmed the house neatly with evergreen and featured Nutcrackers in the window. But those dolls stand before a glimmery tinsel backdrop that reminds me of something you stood in front of for your prom photo (in a good way!) And you can't tell in this picture, but the front door was swathed in extremely glossy metallic blue wrap. It took me a moment to realize there wasn't a blue lightbulb behind the storm door. All in all, I liked how they set off Christmas motifs with an 'American Idol' theatricality.






From around the corner, another impressive display. I think my dad, who likes things to be symmetrical, would appreciate the time and effort that probably went into hanging this. The rows of lights in the windows are striking, but a bit regimented for my tastes; if I were re-doing this for them I would make them follow the pretty scallop pattern that the garland made around the porch.












I don't need everything to be symmetrical, but I do like it when neighbors in connected houses seem to be trying to make their lights match. It is a time of year to cooperate with one another, after all.












Like I said, I don't need everything to be symmetrical. I think these neighbors did something interesting, just creating noodley lines with their lights. It's like abstract art.





Meanwhile, up the street, I thought this house did a good job of signifying "snow" with their lights. So, right, the string up top where the lights are actually shaped like snowflakes allows us to read the fluttery single dots of light below as a snowscape. I guess that's Santa's head in the middle, so maybe this house was actually depicting the North Pole. Neat!








In a twist on the "icicle" style string light, this house created "frost" windows, or maybe "snow accumulating in pane corners" windows, sort of like the spray snow that often shows up in the office windows of insurance agencies and banks. But I this think this is way better.











On the next block, these guys opted for alternative lighting formats in their colorful orbs and paper stars with which they created a bold composition using both their porch and the room behind the front window. It's still festive, but perhaps asking us to contemplate the planetary, more cosmic dimensions of the holidays.











But there is also something to be said for keeping things simple.







Thanks again! Happy holidays and happy new year.