Ahh, Christmas. 'Tis a time for cookies and love and joy. Family and hope and magic. Snow (shout out to the east coast peeps! Hope you're not still buried in a snowbank!). Which brings us to the topic of today's post.
The beautiful twinkling lights.
I love Christmas lights. I could stare at them for hours. All the creative ways of decorating houses and decking the halls - I love them. I love how lights sparkle and twinkle in the snow.
Ok, I'm just gonna come right out and say it:
People who only like white Christmas lights have no love of Christmas in their soul.
(I'm sorry, but I think it's true.)
To me, Christmas (apart from the whole Jesus side of things), is about childhood. It's about wonderment. The magic. "Eight tiny reindeer." (Note: why are they tiny? That makes zero sense.)
The whole white lights trend has irked me ever since I can remember. I'll never forget the time when I was sitting in a nicer restaurant and a woman said something to the effect of "I thought this was one of the nicest restaurants around, but oh my those red lights wrapped around the banister are tacky."
Tacky? Really?
This is a holiday that is (for better or for worse) celebrated with a
What I'm saying is this: Christmas should be about the kids. The magic. The anticipation.
It kinda ticks me off when I hear or see people hating on the festive, colorful lights displays. I'm sorry, but if you're old enough to articulate the fact that you think colorful Christmas lights are tacky - you don't get a vote in my book.
Family Christmas Tree, 2008I'm always taken aback when someone new sees our family tree and remarks: "Oh, you have colored lights. I didn't expect that." Or even worse, "I thought everyone had white light trees nowadays."
I'm sorry, but no can do. This bright, shiny and festive side of Christmas isn't about me. Or what is stylish. Or what the heck Martha freakin Stewart says is chic for home interior and exterior decor.
It's about the kids. Festive, sparkly, colorful lights that widen their eyes.
Tacky, festive holiday cheer that keeps the neighbors awake at night with the sheer brightness of it all. An elecrtic bill that is high enough to make your credit card warm.
(This is where I wish I had a pic of our old neighborhood street all lit up in its heyday. That place was so lit up it made Disneyland jealous. Even the old folks home van would drive by at night to give them a peek.)
That's what it's about folks. And I'm stickin to it.
(For the record, I'd like to state that I know baby Jesus is the reason for the season. But after him, I'm all about the lights.)
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19 Classy Comments:
Preach on! Couldn't agree more with ya :)
And just so ya know, we have colored lights wrapped around our front porch!
Love this post and totally agree with you. We only have one Christmas tree and have decided we are going to make it kid friendly. So my mom gave me our old ornaments that she made when I was born. This way if lil man decides to grab them, it's ok and we don't freak out. He's only 1, so we kinda have to. Kids should be able to have fun too during the holidays.
ROTFLMAO I am one of those white light lovers, but my dh does do some colored lights outside (and on the boys' tree).:)
We have no kids, but all of our lights are still colored. They're just more fun!
I have to admit I'm a white light lover, I like the classic look. But if you must use colors, please don't use just the blue ones. For some reason they really bother me!
I think colored lights are fun! I have white lights one my main tree, blue lights on my white tree, and my small tree has colored blinking lights! We always had those huge red bulbs on our house as a kid and I loved it!!
I'm one of those white light people, but Ty loves the colored lights. He loves very traditional childhood Christmases.
Our family tree always has colored lights too! I love the way they look! They are so pretty!
I love all lights - doesn't matter what color! What matters most to me is the ornaments. I love ornaments that mean something or tell a story! As a kid the most fun part of decorating the tree was taking each ornament out one by one and talking about the story behind it.
haha love this! We had always done white lights only on our house and I let my husband totally redesign all by himself this year... He chose those retro red & green bulbs and put them all along the roof lines and around the front yard. Now whenever we pull up to our (light brown) house our kids say it looks just like a gingerbread house. They love it!
Next year I am having two trees... one with white lights and then I want a white tree with hot pink and turquoise balls and lights! I like variety!
Christmas should be about kids, I agree. I made a comment about the ridiculous number of gifts we bought our nephews this year to my husband. He said that they're only little once and that it's important to make it memorable for them. :)
Haha loveeee it. I agree, even though my family doesn't have colored lights on our tree this year. However, our house is a sight to behold. Just wait until you see my post tomorrow of our Christmas-y house all lit up!
I'm a colored lights kind of girl myself. They're on my tree right now :)
Awesome post - you know I totally agree with you. Down with Christmas snobbery!
I've always had a special place in my heart for colored lights, because growing up, we always had blue lights on our house - which is kinda hanukkah-ish now that I think about it, but I guess that never occurred to us!
I agree! The multi-colored Xmas lights give such a nice warm happy glow. They are the lights of my childhood, and now the lights of my kid's childhood. Merry Christmas!
I love your tree! And people who say Holiday decor is tacky shouldn't be trusted :) A bunch of Scrouges if you ask me...
Haha I completely agree with you! We always have multi-colored lights every year and I wouldn't change it!!
People who use white lights, especially outside, want people to think they're cool, classy, and way too chic to ever consider lights that are multi-colored. They care very much what people think of them. See ing a house that is completely lit in white lights, reindeer, wreaths, and all manner of decorations tell me all I need to know about the people in that house.
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