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Things I am wondering about this week:
What’s the proper etiquette for Christmas light lighting? You turn them on at dusk, right, or somewhere thereabouts, and then you turn them off… when, exactly? Ten o’clock? Midnight? Whenever you go to bed? Is it a community-standards thing, where you need to do more or less the same thing as your neighbors? And if you put up more lights, does that mean you can turn them off earlier to offset the cost of electricity?
Dane has been out of town all week, and my mind, apparently, has begun to fixate on bizarre topics. These two facts may or may not be related.
Last night the kids and I were IMing with Dane before bedtime. It works like this: the kids all pile onto my bed, and then they take turns giving me messages to transcribe. “Write this,” said Owen. “Write: I love you goodnight Alfred.”
“Alfred?” I asked.
“Oops,” said he. “I meant Daddy.”
Obviously.
The important thing is that you turn the lights off…sometime. Not like my neighbor. To whom I am considering sending a Melissa-inspired note:
Dear Brenda,
Please turn your Christmas lights off at 10 pm. Your neighbors enjoy them, but they do not enjoy a fully lit bedroom all night. Also, please consider your carbon footprint. You are, quite literally, killing me.
Love,
Earth
Our outdoor lights are on a timer which turns them on automatically at dusk. We turn them off either when the last guest is in or when we go to bed. I’m about ready for bed right now, so I hope the guests get in from dinner soon!!
Or you could just not put up Christmas lights. I’m saving the planet. No, I’m really just lazy, and honestly, it’s so close to Christmas right now that it hardly matters anyway. What? There’s a whole week left? Look kids–something shiny on the tree! And presents underneath! What were we talking about again?
So many good plans! No lights, a system for turning off lights, lights that are less annoying than Lynne Marie’s neighbor’s. I will try one or more of these plans. Tomorrow. (As I have just realized it’s after midnight and we’ve forgotten to unplug ours. But thankfully they don’t shine anywhere near anyone’s bedroom windows.)
We don’t put up lights. My husband says because no one can see them from the street. I think it’s because no one really wants to go to the effort to put them up.
We leave ours on. We use all LED lights, so they aren’t killing the planet or running up electric bills like some other lights would. We also live with enough space and forestry around our house not to bother anyone else with our modest lighting displays.