The Brightest House on the Block

One of my favorite holiday movies is Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase, the best part of the movie is when he is putting the lights on his house and that traditon is one of my favorites. I always look forward to the day after Thanksgiving so my Dad and I can shock every passer by.

I take it upon myself to be the official designer, picking which light goes where, telling my dad what looks tacky and how to beat the neighbor’s display. For a while, my family always stuck with the colored lights, until the white icicle lights hit store shelves. That was pretty insane, and seeing it on all of the neighbors houses made me a little jealous. They were an obvious trend that had serious staying power, so I made my dad book it to Kmart so that we could buy as much as possible and ditch the colored lights. (They just seemed so classy, as if we were living in Boston with real icicles hanging down, not the Bay Area in 60 degree weather in the middle of December.) He was hesitant at fist, but eventually I cracked him and made him a believer in the icicle lights. Soon, almost as quickly as we bought them, those were over done, as many lighting fads are and soon came the snow-globes. With those, I drew the line. I did not and do not see the point of a hideous inflatable snow-globe that only is inflated at night (never during the day—we are going through an energy crisis, you know). Why litter your lawn with synthetic fabric just to have it blow up to spit out Styrofoam flakes for two hours? No, not on my front lawn. But, the neighbors went crazy for it. And that just meant that we had to up our game that much more. My dad and I competed with our friend/nemesis (during the holiday decorating season only) to dominate in holiday décor.

I think I first became a lighting enthusiast because I was convinced that if my house was the brightest then Santa would be sure to hit my house first and give me all the presents. As I grew up and found out that there is no Santa, then I was just caught up in the tradition and focused more on the excitement of this unspoken rivalry on the street. Although I can’t answer why others are so obsessed with doubling their electricity bill for a month, but their reasoning could be that everyone's just got a little Clark Griswald in them and they simply want their house be seen from space and literally blind the neighbors.