Winter Holiday Decorations

Although I miss Halloween decorations, I'm always thrilled to see winter holiday decorations throughout Olney. I love all types of lights: colored, white, flashing, non-flashing, strings, nets, icicles, spiral trees, stars, snowflakes, etc. 

credit: globallybuying.com

Houses bathed with shimmering spots of lights look magical. I like the way houses become canvases onto which projectors paint laser light shows; my teenage daughter, however, think the pinpoints of light look like "Christmas chicken pox.”

Lighted animals, such as grazing deer, add a more natural look to holiday yard scenes -- natural because real deer actually forage in our suburban yards. My neighbor created this very naturalistic tableau of an alligator stalking two pink flamingos.

Also many inflatables convey fun and action like skiing penguins, shivering snowmen, running reindeer, etc. My favorite busy Santa inflatables include

1. Hardworking Santa dragging his apparently extremely heavy bag of presents 

2. Skiing Santa on the slope (or is he walking with crutches?)

3. Daredevil Santa rounding a curve on the back of Snoopy's motorcycle. 

I'll be sad when the holiday lights darken after the New Year, but until then let's enjoy Olney's diverse and delightful decorations. Happy Holidays!

Saturday Night Lights

Each year during the holiday season, I enjoy the festive decorations throughout Olney. Lights in all colors and shapes -- red Santas pulled in sleighs by brown reindeer, blue ornamental balls, pink flowers, even white giraffes and green palm trees -- adorn my neighbors' yards. I've always admired their gorgeous luminous designs ... only to glance ruefully at my own dark house. My husband has never allowed us to decorate with that blinks, moves, and/or has any color. He does hang a fresh green wreath with a red ribbon on our front door (and shines a bright spotlight on it) every year, but anything else would be out of his decorating comfort zone.

This afternoon, he ventured outside of his comfort zone. As I pulled into our driveway, I was shocked to see not only the standard issue wreath/spotlight display, but also a string of white (baby steps here) lights zigzagging over the front bushes -- on both sides of the front door (how daring for him!). My daughter climbed out of the car and remarked, "Oooh! Now we're not the only dark house on our street." She paused, her admiration turning into a bit of self-consciousness. "Hey, uh, we're the only house on our street with holiday lights on."

The sun had not set so it wasn't even dark out yet. Okay, so we're novices to this light business. At least we finally have outdoor holiday lights up ... for the first time ever!