Decorating

When I was a kid I grew up in small towns. No one had any elaborate light displays. People might have put up a few strings of lights on their house or their trees in there yard. Lights back then were a hassle. I remember where people had to test every single bulb because the string went out and you find the defective bulb causing the problem.

Back in the early 1980's I was living with my parents, recently graduated high school, and moved out not long after. Christmas lights were getting better and more varied. I remember icicle lights were popular back then. My father got into a friendly rivalry one Christmas with the neighbour, who he was friends with, across the street. The guy would add some lights to his yard. Dad would try to one up him by adding more. Dad would come home and notice the neighbour added more in his absence. Dad would then go and buy some more just to add more lights and have more than the other guy.

What made this funny is that my father had absolutely no hint of any artistic vision or sense of decoration. He would nail up strings of lights where over time more strings of lights would be haphazardly added to our fence and house. The guy across the road had a house that looked pretty good. Our house was just well lit.

Technology in lighting and the variety of decorations are so much better these days and there, are some elaborate decorations out there. The photos are of a house in Leduc, Alberta, not all that far away from where I live. If dad had any talent he might have had a great looking house in this day and age.