Posted on 12/22/2007 12:33:12 PM PST by BGHater
Over-the-Top Displays Inspire Loud Complaints, Even Rage; An Inflatable Santa Beheaded
Jim McDilda's holiday display last year included a 28-foot lighted arch, a 50-foot tree, 50,000 lights and dozens of animated silhouettes. The spectacle -- he needed a crane to set it all up -- lit up the sky and drew thousands of gawking visitors to his Redding, Calif., house.
But nearby neighbors weren't so thrilled. Cars, limos and tour buses clogged the cul-de-sac, and trash was strewn across lawns. Christmas music blasting from Mr. McDilda's display kept neighbors awake. They complained to the city, which required that Mr. McDilda get a special-events permit and demanded that he remove the nearby cargo containers he used to store the display most of the year. After months of sniping between Mr. McDilda and the city, he decided to throw in the towel. This year, his house is unadorned.
"They gave me so much trouble, they took the fun out of it," he says.
Look out, Santa: There's a backlash brewing against over-the-top holiday displays. With community associations ramping up holiday decorating contests (some in the hopes of attracting potential home buyers) and manufacturers pitching an increasing variety of yard decor -- think 8-foot inflatable snowmen -- some homeowners and cities have had enough.
Disgruntled neighbors complain of everything from traffic to wasted electricity. In places like Redding and Aurora, Ill., people called for the city to crack down on loud music or decorations that linger after holidays. Police in some areas of the country even report that the growing number of blow-up Santas adorning people's yards are targets for stabbing and other forms of violent
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Inflatables are Satan’s yard decorations.
I don't have them, but my guess would be that it is too much work to take them down and put them back up each year.
So those people perhaps need to have a gentle hint dropped re the whole December 25 thing?
And that there is the definition of trashy: “When it’s too much trouble to throw away, we leave it.”
McDilda??? Christ, this guy must be an absolute bada$$ street figther or one of the biggest liberals on the planet.
When enough of these decorations are banned the little children in China will starve and we’ll have to send them the money we saved from not buying their decorations. It’s a viscious cycle.
That place is literally breathtaking.....thanks for reminding me I'm otw to get a tree and will take my camera to get a picture.
All of those are quite modest compared to this one house in my town-they’ve been famous for their decorations since the late 1970s at least.
For the same reason they breed dust bunnies.
What you said.
Me, I love white lights. Those make a wonderland for me.
Wow - you and me both!
I’m keeping a personal FReeper list of People Who Agree With Me. Sounds like I should add you. ;)
Why, I can make a hat or a brooch or a pterodactyl...
What's Christmas without the King?
Personally, I prefer the restrained approach -- we have a wreath on the mailbox and on the door, a cat-as-Angel-Gabriel banner at the head of the steps, and some tasteful small white lights in the shrubbery either side of the door.
On the other hand, there is an entire little town near my parents' house in South Georgia (Townsend by name) that 'puts on the dog' every Christmas. The whole town is dolled up with lights on every stationary surface (walls, roofs, EVERY SINGLE tree, lamp posts, telephone poles, fences. Plywood cutouts everywhere (including "LeRoy the Redneck Reindeer" in overalls and Cat Hat) and I guess we'll see the inflatables this year. It's incredibly tacky, but it's a communal effort and it really is so over the top that it is fun to go see and take pictures.
There's a similar house in Richmond VA and one of our Thanksgiving traditions when we visit my husband's mother is to get in the car Thanksgiving night and go see the local Tacky Christmas Light House on a nearby street. Similar amazing effort with lights on everything and cutouts and little animated manger scenes (multiples!). The folks on either side have decided to join in the fun so now there are THREE houses side by side. The tour buses can't fit in this little cul de sac so they park at the bottom and people walk up. But it's all in good fun.
On still another hand, there's a very expensive house on the road we take to church (I'm talking a $5-6M monster mansion on a half acre lot) and the owners have squeezed every possible inflatable into the yard -- we stopped and tried to count them one time and gave up at 25. Sponge Bob, Disney characters, snowmen, a train, you name it . . .
I enjoy the first two but despise the third. I think it has to do with the obvious personal effort that goes into the decor in Townsend and Richmond - a lot of the stuff is hand made and the lights take a lot of time to install - and the "hire a bunch of stuff for the yard" attitude of the house down the road. Also there may be an element of contempt for "new money" in play here, since our family is "old blood but no money" and - as my grandmother might have said - even if we have been poor, dahling, at least we have always had Good Taste.
You and me both, sister. What you said. Preach it!
BTW, I have long suspected that you, Tax-Chick, and I are triplet daughters from different mothers.
(raising hand timidly) Could you add me, too? I'm a newbie.
I love ‘em!
Something about sparkling lights make you feel so happy.
I’ve often wondered what the psychology of that is...why is it that sparkling lights bring up feelings of happy excitement...
?
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