I like blinking lights. I also like them when they are in synch and whirling. I seem to be the only one though. Anyone with me.
Blinking is the only way to go. Now you can buy blinking tree lights with a little piece of electronic equipment so you can have several different ways of blinking. (Mine has eight). My favourite is the “random” setting where it switches between different blinking methods.
Twinkling, you grinches. Twinkling!
Bastards!!
::grumble, grumble, needing to get laid::
Twinkin’, bliken’, winken’ or not, those twitchy things are an abomination. The gentle swirl of snow or drift of tinsel are the only sublte movement needed to add magic.
And ornaments that are hand made or purchased with meaning hung about. And Christmas trees that coordinate, with lights and bulbs and Martha Stewart plaid bows are dreadful. They’re just as tacky as the aluminum trees that revolve under multi colored spotlights, snow on themselves and blare out “Wayne Newton’s Christmas Hits”.
A cranky traditionalist,
Veb
Bah Humbug – sorry
I haven’t done any decorating this year, not in the mood. But for what it’s worth last year I switched back and forth from a steady to a slow fade in and out on different segments of the light string.
I don’t like the fast blinking ones…too fast, but the slower ones are cool.
(hope everyone does have a better holiday season than I am apparently having)
There are different tree purposes for different purposes.
Our main family tree has 3 different styles of multicolored lights, and ornaments of manys styles acquired over 20 years.
Our kids have a separate small tree in the guest bedroom/Nintendo room which has all the taste one would expect from an 18 year old boy, and a 17 year old girl who picks mainly purple stuff for everything. It’s lovely…
Someday, we will have too many ornaments for one tree & will do a “formal” tree with all white (or maybe blue) lights, and all the ornaments will be white, or blue, or crystal.
Sue from El Paso
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
Slowly fading from one color to another of course.
Can’t you freaks do anything right? 
Strings of alternating infrared & ultraviolet lights.
I have nothing constructive to do tonight.
Whichever @#$@#$$ string I can untangle.
– Sylence
I don’t have an evil side. Just a really, really apathetic one.
My hubby, a minimalist, actually allowed me to put the tree lights on “twinkle” this year. He’s in Hell.
Here’s a Martha Stewart-ish tip for you, Sylence. Keep the cardboard tubes from your wrapping paper and wrap your lights around them. We’ve been doing this for five years and man, does it make Christmas decorating a million times less stressful.
Blinking lights? As if the voices aren’t enough to deal with already? I don’t think so.
The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik
I don’t have any problem with blinking lights (oh, sorry TWINKLING lights) but I hate lights where the whole string doesn’t so much twinkle as just go on and off randomly, so you get a house or tree where only one or two segments are lit at any given time.
Steady or blinky is fine. Don’t use those stobing lights that were in fashion a few years ago. I felt like I was driving on the airport runway going down the street.
Nuh-no… there is a difference between blinking and twinkling.
Blinking lights: The entire strand goes off and on simultaneously. These are annoying, no matter how quickly or slowly they’re blinking.
Twinkling lights: Individual bulbs blink at random, at a moderate pace. These are pretty, but only if all the lights are the same color, preferably white or gold.
I prefer steady lights, personally.
Semi-related rant for people who decorate their houses for the holidays:
- Do not put that giant light bomb you call a “wreath” on your house. It’s ugly. Regular, green wreaths with decorations and bows are ok. Those…those…searchlights are just awful.
- Icicle lights have to go. They were cool when only a few houses had them, now every single house in town has them and there’s no creativity in Christmas decorating anymore.
- Less is more. Do not OVER-light your house. It’s tacky.
- Regardless how many lights you’re going to put up, make sure that a)you have enough to go from one end of your house to the other, and b) unless you’re going for the scalloped look, make your strands taut.
- Please try to refrain from turning your front yard into a Winter Wonderland. Bushes and trees with a few well-placed light strands are ok. Santa and his reindeer, Nativity scenes, candy-striped poles and little elves and Santa’s workshop and Rudolph…it’s overkill. Really. You wonder why your neighbors (especially the ones across the street) hate you? This is why. They’ve gone since the day after Thanksgiving without any sleep.
Decorating in moderation. Presents in abundance.
[/end semi-related rant for people who decorate their houses for the holidays.]
“Wednesday the 15th - Chris made one of her rare good points today.”
Guanolad
So the special siding and trim to turn my entire house into a giant wrapped Christmas present wasn’t a good idea?
My city is full of ice lights and they don’t flash…Although I is tempted to put in a flasher bulb during the day on the city display.
i don’t know whether you’re talking about inside or out. inside, i’m all for blinking… but outside, it erks me a bit.
especially when people go crazy putting those tiny blinking ones on their houses in a bajillion different dirrections.
yikes.
“human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust; we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” - albert einstein
The kind that you can make blink or solid is best…if you’re having a few beers…make them blink…if you’re sober…make them solid…