Christmas Lights...how long is too long to leave them up?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>As I sit in our home office and glance out the window, one of the houses in my view STILL has their Christmas lights up? What gives? Yes, we have had a relentless winter, but there have been plenty of nice days to take it down. The husband doesn’t work non stop and they have kids to assist them. We live in a nice neighborhood, but have no home owner assoc. dues or rules. </p>

<p>It’s quite odd that their family is so particular about how there appear to others, that they are unfazed by their holiday adorned home two months after Christmas.</p>

<p>Is there a rule to Christmas lights, as there is to “don’t where white after labor day?”</p>

<p>Anyone else out there STILL looking at their neighbors Christmas lights??</p>

2

<p>I noticed this week that almost all of my neighbors still have their wreaths up (on the siding of their house, above the front door). Of course, we still have a foot of snow on the ground… so I figured maybe they haven’t felt safe going up on the roof over the front door to take them down :slight_smile: But just yesterday while walking the dog, it was snowing and I was looking at the wreaths. I felt like I was caught in a time warp, and it was only December…</p>

3

<p>Do they TURN ON the Christmas lights this time of year? :eek: Or are the strands of light just left in place and likely unplugged?</p>

<p>If they’re off, but still sitting there, I’d say it’s kinda tacky. But, probably only ranks as a “misdemeanor” curb appeal violation. ;)</p>

4

<p>We have ours on the house 24/7, 365, but we only plug them in for about three weeks a year. No one really notices our rope LED lights attached under the roof overhangs until we point them out (just like the rope lights above the entry to this very nice restaurant where we ate this weekend, shown here: [Barking</a> Frog Restaurant](<a href=“http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g58835-d126092-w5-Willows_Lodge-Woodinville_Washington.html]Barking”>http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g58835-d126092-w5-Willows_Lodge-Woodinville_Washington.html)
Does this look tacky? :)</p>

5

<p>BB- we’ve eaten there! and stayed at the hotel! (sorry - off topic)</p>

6

<p>I confess - I still have my Christmas wreath up. We have had so much snow that it just seemed appropriate. Now that we are in mud season, I guess it needs to go. I remember going to a Christmas mass a few years ago and the priest encouraged leaving something up so that you could appreciate Christmas all year. My neighbors have a bush that still has lights (white) and they are still turning them on at night. I have to admit - I really enjoy looking out my window and seeing them at night. I really like Christmas!!</p>

7

<p>My neighbor has little white twinkly lights in a few bushes. She says likes how it brightens up this time of year. I have no problem with that. I think still having your house outlined or bright colors is a bit much. I don’t have a problem with DougBetsy’s lights as they have them off and they are not noticeable. I hate seeing icicle lights in August.</p>

8

<p>Just took mine down last week,though they have’t been turnes on since december…there was snow on the ground until recently…i have never had them up longer then 1/1 in 25 years.</p>

9

<p>We kept our lights on our house, but unlit, for years. They weren’t noticeable. If we had them on this year at all, we’d probably still turn them on occasionally now-- we like it in the snow, and it’s still the dead of winter here.</p>

<p>However, our neighborhood doesn’t do the “curb appeal” thing. Christmas lights are the least of our concerns on that front.</p>

10

<p>Many of our neighbors have their Christmas lights on the shrubs and in hidden areas on the house year round. They just don’t turn them on.</p>

11

<p>I will confess that I just took my wreaths down yesterday. Not because I was lazy but because I thought they looked nice. I buy the real ones and I felt bad taking them down when they were still looking so pretty. Now that they have started to turn a little brown I decided it was time to take them down.</p>

12

<p>You should take them down when you go to paint the house. Otherwise they’ll look bad.</p>

13

<p>That’s the problem, fendergirl. My wreath still looks great. But with Lent beginning on Wednesday, I know it has to go! It just seems premature to put up a “springy” wreath right now.</p>

14

<p>DH was adverse to fake christmas trees until two years ago when he decided the lives ones were astronomically expensive (I agree). We bought a beautiful fake tree on sale in January that year. ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to get him to agree to take the darn thing down!</p>

<p>Sure, it looks great in our entry hallway and we love Christmas but really it was getting plenty dusty and cobwebby. FINALLY got him to help me put it away right before Valentine’s day. </p>

<p>Then he refused to unplug the very tasteful single white candles in each window until last weekend!!!</p>

<p>I told him that I’m just not putting them up in NOvember without a written agreement for removal in January. After 29 years of marriage, THIS might be the straw.</p>

15

<p>Wait, there are people who take down their Christmas lights?</p>

16

<p>Three of the four houses around me still have holiday wreaths. Two have lights.</p>

<p>We light a menorah. Eight nights is the legal limit. :D</p>

17

<p>Our neighbors are Jewish and they put up blue and white “Christmas” lights. Rope lights and Stars of David dangling from trees.</p>

<p>As of 10 minutes ago they are still turned on.</p>

<p>No snow or other reason I am aware of. It was 75 degrees today and people are wearing shorts and flipflops…</p>

18

<p>I just took the wreath off the front door last week. I forgot it was there! With all the snow we had, it was impossible to get to the front door for several weeks and we always come in through the garage. Someone rang the doorbell last week and when I opened the door I said, “Oh!” when I saw the wreath so I grabbed it and threw it in the house as I talked to the neighbors. Most of the lights in our neighborhood are down and none have been turned on recently.</p>

19

<p>In Anchorage we light the Christmas lights until the last Iditarod musher crosses the finish line in Nome.</p>

20

<p>We have had so much snow this year that until this weekend we hadn’t seen our lawn for months. Now I drive around town and see lots of xmas decorations littering everyone’s yard, they were either buried under the snow or frozen to the ground making them impossible to remove. I don’t like to see xmas lights up all year long, but heck they do make me smile when I notice them.</p>