"I want to see the bright lights tonight"

I didn't go to a concert, so further quoting the Richard and Linda Thompson song would not make much sense ( although, for reference, "I Want To See The Bright Lights" is a song from the same titled 1974 album. It's track 4 and is almost like a folky party dance song, in a strange way). 

The whole reason for the post title was that my mother decided she wanted to go see the Christmas lights around our community before they were all taken down. Most people seem to start the dismantling around New Years, while others wait until the middle of the first week of January. 

Either way, it was now or never to see this year's creativity. 

Even though we went out at 6:45pm, it was so dark, you'd think it was closer to 10. It felt weird slowing down and staring at the setups and it felt more strange taking photos. 

Like I said in a previous post, people get crazy when cars are slowing down in the neighborhood and someone has a camera or phone out. The Facebook blasts don't lie when the residents start posting their angry "What's this person doing and why?!" comment. So you've got to be careful around here, even if it's just you looking and not taking photos. 

I still attempted to take some pictures, but my mother was driving and didn't completely stop at each house. She slowed down enough to take a solid stare, but not long enough to have my phone register all the colors. Therefore, a lot the 53 attempted pictures came out blurry and bad. I was able to salvage 11 and there is one or two that aren't so great. 

All photos taken with an iPhone 11 and not edited for color and contrast. WYSIWYG. I added my name and did edit my hand out of one photo, plus house numbers.

From what I could find online, the NFL snowman is from a company called "Sporticulture". It's a Buffalo Bills snowman, and unfortunately not available for purchase on Amazon. The sport page has other teams, but NY isn't one of them, unless you want some sort of LED light object, framed art or other types of inflatables (people). 

The Nightmare Before Christmas inflatables have Stitch in the background, which is a little hard to see. He's closer to the front door and hiding. There are so many different Nightmare inflatables, it's hard to find the exact one at this house. I know the Stitch is in a Santa suit. 

The waving Santa doesn't exactly wave; he just looks that way. 

I found a similar "Santa in a bus" inflatable, but the characters are different. 

The house with the lights and snowman: There's a Gemmy brand projection on the side of the house that says "Let It Snow". I couldn't find that particular projector, but Amazon has other ones, including non Gemmy brands. That particular phrase doesn't seem to exist anymore (from what I saw, it's a Party City exclusive?). 

I did see other houses with different phrased on the walls and it took me a a few minutes to think of "Gobo" because the theatrical lighting experience I have, has told me that any type of design projected from a light source, usually comes from big stage productions. It's a stencil (sometimes aluminum, sometimes glass) that pops into the light and can show off a brand name, a saying, a picture, anything you want. And it can be expensive. 

That's why everyone goes with the lower cost plastic stake projector. It plops right into the ground, you turn it on and it does its thing. When its time to pack it in, you unplug it, take it out of the ground, put it in your Rubbermaid tote bin of holiday decorations, and it goes to wait the year out in darkness until you're ready for it again. 

The corner house with the Santa and inflatables, everyone has seen those types of characters, but it being a corner unit, it was interesting to have them all seemingly come at you as you make the turn.

I kind of like the simplicity of the second to last picture. It's low key enough that you know they wanted something, but wanted to remain functional and not over the top. It's easy.

A lot of people also had similar star shaped tree lights (the last picture). It's a star on top of free flowing string lights, coming down into a triangular shape. Looks a little like a tree in a way. I searched "Christmas outdoor star lights" and came up with a few different types, but the keyword also gave me stars. 

I feel like, over all, there were a lot of houses who threw together way too many lights outside. There were plenty of the darker colors this year and it honestly hurt my head to look at them. Some residents made their places look like the string light factory had a fire sale and then the box threw up on the bushes. It was way too much, as everything was covered - the roof line, the corners of the house, the ground, the plants... it was overload and messy. Which is why I feel that one house with the limited lights is classy enough that it's not headache inducing crazy. 

I know, I know.. it's the holiday season and people are allowed to go wild. But there needs to be a point where you step back and ask yourself "is all this really necessary?". I mean, there are places where there are just enough lights (without reaching that "too much" threshold), that it looks okay, tasteful in a way. They are solid, matching colors; a theme. But when you mismatch / mix and don't watch what you're doing, it gets dizzying and unkempt. 

I like the inflatables as well; they're cute. Full yards are also too much. One or two are plenty, unless it's a family of them (example would be Santa pulling a sleigh and each reindeer is individual. Or a scene from a movie where each character is doing something). Creating a space where there is no interaction and you put something down for the sake of lawn space? No. 

I've said it before and I will say it again: Florida is not the place for full on Christmas decorations. Palm trees and snow globes compete with each other. They don't match. (Fake) Evergreen and spruce trees in 75° weather with no fluffy white stuff on the ground? I don't think so. The seasons here aren't the same when you're used to the "white Christmas" of other regions. I didn't grow up here, so I know the decorations don't belong as much as they do anywhere else. It's just weird to me. 

Again, that's just me. I'm not trying to Grinch my way into the new year; I'm just being honest. I like a lot of the decorations, but too much is too much. As I've gotten older (rather the past couple years), I've had issues with a lot of the lights at night. It's becoming a neurological thing, I suppose. The variations are bothering me, to the point that I can't look at them. The dark colors (all blues and reds) seem to be the fashion lately, and last night I realized how bad it has become for me. It bleeds in a way that I don't want to deal with it. They used to be nice enough to look at, and now I find myself going "nope" at it. It's hard to explain without continuing to sound like a jerk. I wonder what would happen if I got back into theatrical design? I'd probably pull my hair out because people want specific colors on and around them. Which then would lead me to want to do audio instead. 

Can't have it all, I suppose!

What I can have is the end of this post. My keyboard is acting up and I feel like I lost have my rambling. I might need new batteries. Plus, we're getting surprise company in a few minutes and I need to get ready.

Be someone's brightness in the dark this week and take care of yourselves.

Cheers;