We put some outdoor Christmas lights up today. Not many people will see them since our house does not have much visible frontage on the road, and it’s a fairly quiet country road anyway; the only people that will see them would be visitors who come right up to the door after dark (and we don’t get many of those). We won’t even really see them ourselves much as the curtains will be closed when they’re on - and they wouldn’t even really be in our sight lines if we left the curtains open.
We’ll see them when we take the dog out for a walk in the evening, or if we have any other reason to go outside in the dark.
It is pointless to decorate our house like this? I felt like it was, but my wife says she wants to do it and it’ll make her feel festive just to know we’ve made the house look nice, and that she’ll be looking at them from time to time anyway. They’re LED-based and on a timer, so the power consumption isn’t really a great concern and they were not expensive to buy and so I had no real reason to try to insist that we shouldn’t do it. I’m happy if just the thought of the thing makes her happy,
But what do you think? Is it pointless to put up decorations that few people will ever see? Is it worth it just for the thought of the thing? Or for the few people that will see them?
If somebody in the house really wants them, and they’re not breaking the bank or drawing lots of power or seriously disturbing any critters, then they’re worth it.
I don’t think anybody’s really seeing my Hannukah menorah except me, even though I put it in a front window looking down the road. But it matters to me that I put it there.
About 5% this:
I like it when I see other’s decorations. Even if only fleetingly. When I see theirs, it makes me feel good.
In turn as the decorator, not the observer, I know I’ll be delivering at least some of that goodness to somebody. Which is enough for me.
Yes, not so many observers given the specifics of your home. But some. Can you decorate a hedge or gate or something else visible from the road to get more observer bang for your decorating effort buck?
We’ve gone for multicoloured LEDs, but they are enclosed in milky white spheres of different sizes so the light is nicely diffused and looks jolly without that piercing harshness that coloured LEDs sometimes have. They have various flashing and pulsing modes, but they are on steady. There are some kinds of twinkly lights that can look good, but the flashing modes on the majority of cheap LED strings are a seizure-inducing horror.
I once walked partway up the hill behind my house after dark, and saw through the trees at the boundary line what looked very much like a building fully ablaze on the next road over (and still a good half mile away from me, with some very rough ground inbetween).
I was running down to the house (this was before I was carrying a cell phone) to call the fire department when I started to think:
for one, I wasn’t hearing any commotion, which was odd because there were several houses much closer than me to that one at which I’d have expected people to be home. And, for two, if there was anybody in that building, it was already way too late; it looked fully engulfed. It was unlikely that any other house would catch for the sake of a few minute’s delay; they weren’t close enough.
So instead of calling 911, I got in my car and drove up there to check. (Getting there from my house by road involves first driving briefly in the opposite direction, then heading north or south to the nearest cross road, driving uphill to the road in question and back along that until I’m opposite my house again; but that only takes about five minutes.)
Still no commotion. And when I was actually in front of the house apparently aflame, I could see why: the entire front of the house was covered in red lights, pulsing in a fashion that mimiced flame rising upwards. But no actual fire.
Around here the old fashioned tradition is to put candles in your windows for Christmas. Of course now they are battery ones.
I don’t even do this though. We live on a dead end road with one house beyond ours, owned by an old man who lives alone. The only people going past while it’s dark would be maybe a hunter or two, leaving their trucks at the end of the road and walking into the state forest.
However I do hang wreaths on the doors. And one can see my lit tree through the windows …
The last house I lived in (for 40 years), could not be seen from any road. I’ve never hung Christmas lights in my life, probably not starting now.
Normally, I’m spending a week at Disney right about now, and I do a lot of decorating for the cabin. Lots of people come by and see it. This year, I didn’t get to go on the trip, so I set up my tree in the house for the first time ever. I have a few other things put out. I plan to put my inflatables out on the front yard as soon as I have the time, and I may hang some lights around the garage. Not many people other than the few on the cul-de-sac are likely to see the outside stuff. No one except me will see the inside stuff.
Today, I came home from visiting the parents (for those who aren’t following my thread, my Mom is in hospice, and is expected to pass away any day now), and saw the lights on the tree waiting for me. It made me smile. And that’s really important right now.
When I was a child we lamented the fact that my parents never put up outside lights.
We lived in an out of the way house on a side street that never received much traffic but we wanted … lights!
Finally one season my father installed a giant up Santa face over the porch light along with some outdoor strings of colorful bulbs. We were ecstatic.
Years later when my son was small he developed a fascination for Christmas lights. I came home one afternoon and he had lights everywhere in the house. Around the computer desk, up the stairway, festooning all the inner doorways. Lights made him joyful.
I don’t decorate at all for Christmas but I do enjoy seeing people having fun with lights and whatever else they put up.
I agree with the sentiments expressed in this thread that Christmas decorations, whether lights or whatever, are for you and your family and how it makes them feel. How many strangers see them is irrelevant.
Basically you put up Christmas decorations for the same reason you put up any kind of art or decoration around the house and whatever else you may do to make your environment aesthetically pleasing, including outdoor landscaping – regardless of who may or may not ever see it. You’re shaping your environment in a way that pleases you.
Absolutely. We put out a wreath and a Christmas-themed welcome mat, although very few people will see them. But it makes us happy!
I am a sucker for Christmas decorations, the tackier the better. My mother was Martha Stewart before Martha Stewart was Martha Stewart. When I was growing up we had disappointingly tasteful, understated Christmas decor. There were no lights on the house (how garish!), and the tree had white lights only, plus exactly one set of identical white ornaments. For a child, this was extremely disappointing.