Up until about ten years ago, seasonal lighting displays at stores and malls could be counted on to feature strings of lights of every color in the rainbow. It was beautiful and festive, bringing back happy childhood memories, and the part of the Christmas season I most looked forward to.
Now, wherever you go, nothing but white lights. Macy’s, Lord & Taylor, mall corridors, even three out of four private homes which have any displays at all (which an increasing percentage don’t). All white.
News flash, people! White light is boring! You can see it all year just by flipping a friggin’ switch! Where’s the specialness, the excitement?
I find it seriously ironic that as society becomes more diverse, holiday displays have been getting steadily blander and more monochromatic.
Is there a reason for this trend? Is it different in other areas of the country? It’s getting so I’m not even looking forward to Christmas anymore.
White Christmas lights always seemed a little bit classier than colored ones to me. Perhaps some company somewhere focus grouped that, then all the other companies ripped off their idea by using white lights themselves. But that’s pretty much a wild guess.
I don’t picture this as new as far as stores/malls go. The local megamall when I was a kid had strings of white lights on the trees in the parking lot. At least in the 1960s if not earlier. It’s in my mind as so typical for malls that I would consider it odd to have multicolor ones.
It seems to me that the trend has been back to colored lights in the last few years, at least on houses. Ten years ago, everyone had the white “icicle” lights. Now the BIG colored lights are in, and I like them. Trying to make Christmas lights classy is like trying to make cheez-whiz elegant.
Yeah. Some of the Mexican restaurants around here (Fort Worth) have strings of colored lights up all year round. It’s not sophisticated, but it is festive. Occasionally I’ll put up a tree with white lights only, but I usually string the tree with multicolored twinkle lights. Similarly, we almost always hang a variety of ornaments on our tree, even though having a color theme looks classier.
Tysons Corner and Fair Oaks used colored lights at least till the late 90s.
What prompted my OP was that even in the Christmas store, all the display trees were white-only, the first time that’s been the case.
Manda JO, around here everyone had wire-frame bobbing-head deer in their yards; now it’s those inflatable Santas, sleighs, snowmen &c.
I like blue lights too. One of my earliest Christmas-related memories is of riding past a house festooned with blue lights as “American Pie” was playing on the car radio.
The whole white Christmas lights thing actually started in my hometown of Radford, Va. There was a lady down the street who put white lights in the two trees in her front yard, and a single white light candle in each window. We all marveled at its beauty and simplicity. From there it spread like kudzu. This would have been in circa 1972. An undocumented fact, of course. Anybody see this sort of thing earlier?
I like colored lights. The kind that flash on and off. Zillions of them. The new LED lights use only a fourth of the electricity, but they don’t both flash and come in five colors. Sigh.
I have no insight to offer to this thread on the developments in the Christmas light business. BUT, I am fascinated that Christmas lights seemed to just be plain old Christmas lights for years (decades?). Then, all of a sudden, there was a mass of “innovation” in that industry. Same goes for toothbrushes. I’ve always kept my eyes open for a staid product that I could revolutionize and become a gazillionaire. I haven’t found one yet. Maybe pencils?
A few years ago some friends and I were discussing this, and the only thing we really came up with is that there was more snow in previous decades, so colors were used to contrast with the stark whiteness.
Now that at least in some places there are fewer White Christmases, people are using white to sort of imitate snow.
And nope, we weren’t high, and we weren’t even that drunk
I always see the McMansions decked out in white lights so I assume it is their attempt to be classy; I find it sterile, joyless and common. Bring on the colors!
I like white lights–they’re pretty and star-like. The trick is to deck out your Christmas tree in white lights and then put up the shiny coloured glass balls, so you have gleams of light and colour everywhere.
The icicle lights look tacky, though. Give me a few solid strings of colour, a coordinated display, and I’m happy.
