If you are going to store someone’s boat in your driveway, might as well decorate it. The blue moves so it looks kinda like waves.
I might not have the fanciest decorations on the block, but I am the most obnoxiously bright.
I was trying to upload some video clips but imgur is being a pain. And once I figure out the video thing I’ll come back with some amazing stuff that’s local.
@RiotDemon I agree - the colors are so much warmer. There are a lot of houses around here that just have white and it’s pretty but the colorful ones make me way happier. I’ll try to get some photos of my favorites and post them soon; I don’t put up outside light myself.
@f00l@Kyeh thanks! Yeah, over the years I’ve had people thanking me for decorating.
I stay inside mostly but the other night when I was fixing a couple of things, I had someone stop and tell me my decorations were “the best!” so that made me feel really good. It just makes me happy to come home every night to this bright monstrosity. I hope other people feel that way when they drive by.
@f00l@RiotDemon I love the more personal displays like yours. I find a lot of the huge ones too commercial-looking, although impressive. There’s one prairie mansion a few miles from me that has a bunch of big trees and each one is fully loaded with a different color of lights - it’s beautiful but it looks like a hotel or something.
I took a little trip around the neighborhood. One of the houses that has had a big synchronized display in the past had nothing up this year. But the one right down on the next block did:
Everything on this house is animated except the bushes and the little snowmen at the front. They play music over your radio, and the tree is a display that shows the Grinch, Charlie Brown, Jesus, etc when the different songs are on. Fun fact, while I was trying to take this photo I was stopped in front of the people that live there who were trying to get in their driveway. Oops.
Here are some other ones I saw:
This person has these green lights every year. It’s ridiculously bright. The red lights I believe are a recent addition.
These two houses together are very festive.
This looks classy.
Color schemes are a thing at some houses. (That’s green, looks kind of blue in the picture.)
This one had a ton of inflatables and lights. And a premonition of the Easter cross. I wonder if Easter lights are a thing. (Edit: Palm Sunday. Got it.)
Some people outline the whole roof. It looks nice but that’s a lot to climb. Not something I would do but I’ll happily look at it!
@djslack ahhhh, love them!! So many nice ones to look at.
If I ever decide to outline my roof, at least it’s only one line besides the outside. I always wonder if they staple the lights to the roofline. That last one is so straight!
@RiotDemon I think I saw on the green one that they have clips tucked into the shingles on the ridgelines. And we all just got new roofs (rooves?) in the neighborhood this year because of a bad hailstorm, so hopefully they did it carefully.
@djslack ah, shingle clips. Didn’t think of that. I would be worried about lifting up the shingles and then they would want to fly away in a hurricane.
@djslack When we were teenagers we used to outline the whole roof, every ridge and valley and the edges with the big C9 electric lights. My Dad used to complain about damage to the shingles but it really didn’t do much and we used clips where we could, including those metal hooks that you hammered into the ends of the rafters. We took it all the way around the house and rear patio roof because even though we were the only ones who could see it, it wasn’t complete without them.
Miss that. Don’t miss Dad complaining about the power bills and turning them off at 10-11PM every night when we wanted them to run 100% of the dark time.
7 watts per bulb… a few hundred bulbs… it adds up. we had to plug them into three separate circuits
@duodec yeah, I’m sure your dad identified with Clark Griswold’s power meter. Now LEDs get it done on no power, but sometimes I miss the colors of the old school lights.
My parents’ house had little rings on the soffits that you could pop the strings through, and a switched power outlet in the middle of the house so you could plug in one string going one way and one going the other. You could put them up from the ground with a broomstick in twenty minutes, get on a ladder once to plug them in, and be good to go. It just outlined the front of the house but we were spoiled.
@djslack@duodec my entire setup right now is powered from one outlet.
I don’t think I would decorate like this with old school lights. It’s just not worth the hassle of running power from everywhere. And the power bill, ugh. As it is, I use a dusk sensor that splits into two and then I have two regular outdoor extension cords, and two or three that split into three along the length… A bunch of three way splitters, and a bunch of cheap indoor extension cords… Probably at least 6-7 of those. It’s like the scene in A Christmas Story with the scary outlet except spread out everywhere.
I would absolutely love to have outlets in my soffit. The most frustrating thing is getting power to my window snowflakes. I hate the extension cords coming up from the grass. My landlord (who I ended up buying my house from) had actually removed the outside outlet when it failed and I put it back a few years later, telling him I needed the outlet out there for taking care of the house and charged him for the parts. Really it was just for lights. Before I put the outlet back I ran a cord from inside the garage and closed the door on it.
Not to mention moving everything for the lawn people. I’m hoping this year I only need to do it once since it hasn’t been raining too much.
I’ll start:
Closeup, cuz purple.
If you are going to store someone’s boat in your driveway, might as well decorate it. The blue moves so it looks kinda like waves.
I might not have the fanciest decorations on the block, but I am the most obnoxiously bright.
I was trying to upload some video clips but imgur is being a pain. And once I figure out the video thing I’ll come back with some amazing stuff that’s local.
@RiotDemon love the lit boat!
I think my neighbors’ house is shut down for the night, I’ll try to get pics tomorrow.
@djslack looking forward to it!
That’s wonderful! I love all the colors and the big window
snowflake!
@Kyeh thanks! It’s animated! When I first started decorating my house I used only white for everything except the blue snowflake in the big window.
The last few years I decided that I needed more color in my life.
@RiotDemon I agree - the colors are so much warmer. There are a lot of houses around here that just have white and it’s pretty but the colorful ones make me way happier. I’ll try to get some photos of my favorites and post them soon; I don’t put up outside light myself.
@Kyeh @RiotDemon
Beautiful. Bet the neighbors love it.
@f00l @Kyeh thanks! Yeah, over the years I’ve had people thanking me for decorating.
I stay inside mostly but the other night when I was fixing a couple of things, I had someone stop and tell me my decorations were “the best!” so that made me feel really good. It just makes me happy to come home every night to this bright monstrosity. I hope other people feel that way when they drive by.
@f00l @RiotDemon I love the more personal displays like yours. I find a lot of the huge ones too commercial-looking, although impressive. There’s one prairie mansion a few miles from me that has a bunch of big trees and each one is fully loaded with a different color of lights - it’s beautiful but it looks like a hotel or something.
Alright here are some pictures from when I was out and or places I’ve been for Christmas.
Downtown Dallas near the Opera House
Downtown Frisco
Downtown Frisco 2
Downtown Grapevine
Vitruvian Park in Addison
@Targaryen I want that giant ornament in my front yard!
@djslack @Targaryen Seriously. That is one BFO!
@Targaryen gorgeous! Especially love the last photo.
@RiotDemon Yeah it’s a nice walk.
@djslack @mehcuda67 Yeah it was part of a “Christmas town” thing. Bit of a wait to walk through as lots of selfies and family photos were happening.
I don’t put up lights because I can’t compete with the ones next door:
I took a little trip around the neighborhood. One of the houses that has had a big synchronized display in the past had nothing up this year. But the one right down on the next block did:
Everything on this house is animated except the bushes and the little snowmen at the front. They play music over your radio, and the tree is a display that shows the Grinch, Charlie Brown, Jesus, etc when the different songs are on. Fun fact, while I was trying to take this photo I was stopped in front of the people that live there who were trying to get in their driveway. Oops.
Here are some other ones I saw:
This person has these green lights every year. It’s ridiculously bright. The red lights I believe are a recent addition.
These two houses together are very festive.
This looks classy.
Color schemes are a thing at some houses. (That’s green, looks kind of blue in the picture.)
This one had a ton of inflatables and lights. And a premonition of the Easter cross. I wonder if Easter lights are a thing. (Edit: Palm Sunday. Got it.)
Some people outline the whole roof. It looks nice but that’s a lot to climb. Not something I would do but I’ll happily look at it!
@djslack ahhhh, love them!! So many nice ones to look at.
If I ever decide to outline my roof, at least it’s only one line besides the outside. I always wonder if they staple the lights to the roofline. That last one is so straight!
@RiotDemon I think I saw on the green one that they have clips tucked into the shingles on the ridgelines. And we all just got new roofs (rooves?) in the neighborhood this year because of a bad hailstorm, so hopefully they did it carefully.
@djslack ah, shingle clips. Didn’t think of that. I would be worried about lifting up the shingles and then they would want to fly away in a hurricane.
@djslack @RiotDemon
They also have gutter clips. You can DIY improv with everyday office supply binder clips, too.
@djslack I enjoy the themed houses people both in style and dedication.
@djslack When we were teenagers we used to outline the whole roof, every ridge and valley and the edges with the big C9 electric lights. My Dad used to complain about damage to the shingles but it really didn’t do much and we used clips where we could, including those metal hooks that you hammered into the ends of the rafters. We took it all the way around the house and rear patio roof because even though we were the only ones who could see it, it wasn’t complete without them.
Miss that. Don’t miss Dad complaining about the power bills and turning them off at 10-11PM every night when we wanted them to run 100% of the dark time.
7 watts per bulb… a few hundred bulbs… it adds up. we had to plug them into three separate circuits
@duodec yeah, I’m sure your dad identified with Clark Griswold’s power meter. Now LEDs get it done on no power, but sometimes I miss the colors of the old school lights.
My parents’ house had little rings on the soffits that you could pop the strings through, and a switched power outlet in the middle of the house so you could plug in one string going one way and one going the other. You could put them up from the ground with a broomstick in twenty minutes, get on a ladder once to plug them in, and be good to go. It just outlined the front of the house but we were spoiled.
@djslack @duodec my entire setup right now is powered from one outlet.
I don’t think I would decorate like this with old school lights. It’s just not worth the hassle of running power from everywhere. And the power bill, ugh. As it is, I use a dusk sensor that splits into two and then I have two regular outdoor extension cords, and two or three that split into three along the length… A bunch of three way splitters, and a bunch of cheap indoor extension cords… Probably at least 6-7 of those. It’s like the scene in A Christmas Story with the scary outlet except spread out everywhere.
I would absolutely love to have outlets in my soffit. The most frustrating thing is getting power to my window snowflakes. I hate the extension cords coming up from the grass. My landlord (who I ended up buying my house from) had actually removed the outside outlet when it failed and I put it back a few years later, telling him I needed the outlet out there for taking care of the house and charged him for the parts. Really it was just for lights. Before I put the outlet back I ran a cord from inside the garage and closed the door on it.
Not to mention moving everything for the lawn people. I’m hoping this year I only need to do it once since it hasn’t been raining too much.
@RiotDemon From your wiring description, this springs to mind for some reason.
KuoH
@kuoh that works too! I had this one in mind:
@RiotDemon Should we start the GoFundMe for your new house now or wait until after you’re cleared of the arson charges?
KuoH
Just saw this:
Not nearly as fancy as what I’ve seen, but here’s mine. Representing my Tribesmen, too! Happy Hanukkah, yo!! (This is just part, by the way.)
@randoon fun!