Thursday, December 27, 2007

Holiday Cheer: What's your type?

This time of year is one of the best for checking out potential neighborhoods. The way people decorate the outside of their home, can also give you a great clue as to what they might be like as neighbors.

I see homes falling into the following types, with my guess as to possible characteristics of the inhabitants as well:
  • No decorations: too busy for stop and celebrate the holidays, away for the holidays, hermits, or possibly Grinch's who don't want to pay the higher electricity bills.
  • Single color light string across eves and roof: Type A, likes everything in its place, or perhaps not Christian but interested in showing some holiday spirit.
  • Many types of lights and no particular pattern: Pack rats, kids helping put up the lights.
  • Lawn ornaments: People who like to collect things (stamps, baseball cards, china, dolls, cars, boats etc).

Where I grew up on the Central Coast, there were more homes decorated than not. Here in Serrano, we seem to be in the minority. My daughter is just old enough to enjoy all the decorations, so it anyone knows of some good streets around here....please let me know.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"No decorations: too busy for stop and celebrate the holidays, away for the holidays, hermits, or possibly Grinch's who don't want to pay the higher electricity bills".

I think decorations are pretty lame myself and a total waste of time and resources.You have people bitching about global warming why they light up their house w/ a bunch of ugly lights.They have no clue where the energy comes from.Christmas has been totally ruined by consumerism.Nobody thinks about the true meaning anymore.Bunch of greedy people out there.

Anonymous said...

I also live in Serrano (off Archetto) and have seen quite a few lights in my neighborhood. Best home I've seen so far is directly off Villagio across from the park.

Cmyst said...

We have lights, but we didn't put them up this year. We were doing good to get the tree up and decorated.
OTOH, we DID march in the Placerville Christmas parade, so we aren't total slugs, lol.
I confess, I did worry about the light bill this year. And I noticed that only about half as many homes as last year in our neighborhood put up lights.
I tend to agree with big n rich, and not just about Christmas. Even Halloween, which used to be the anti-holiday holiday, is over-commercialized and hyped.

Anonymous said...

I'm with Big, Xmas lights are evil and a waste of resources. But then you know I don't do Xmas either.

This years Boxing Day was a blast and I brought a Festivus pole. The theme for this year seemed to have been Found Art and I got a couple of incredible gifts where friends took old objects and repurposed them into great art. All us Grinches had a wonderful holiday.

Cmyst, Halloween has been my favorite holiday since well....forever. If consumerism gets it's hands on Beltane and messes it up too, someone is going to pay >; )

Cmyst said...

Gwynster -

I love the whole "war against Christmas" thing. Yeppers, indeed. Holly, mistletoe, evergreens, and the winter solstice have everything to do with a Middle Eastern (desert) culture and religion!
Seriously, I invite all races/creeds/colors and secular humanists, as well as polytheistic animists, to freely decorate trees, kiss under mistletoe, sing jolly songs, drink and eat and keep the light of the human spirit alive in the dead of winter.
The only war against Christmas was the one that was fought and won by the merchants and corporations.

Festivus Pole --- hmm, reminds me of Smiling Bob. I love that commercial!

2cents said...

I'm in the no decorations camp. I don't want anyone to mistakenly associate me with the republican (christian) party.