What kind of outdoor Christmas lights do you love or hate?

I can't stand icicles for several reasons. They're way too common; they take no creativeness to hang them; they're kind of stupid looking; and sometimes people leave them hanging from their eaves year round and they look messy in the summer. My wife disagrees with me. She doesn't think icicles are all that bad.

I'm also not a big fan of those corny looking huge inflatable Santas or Frosties, although I'm sure the kids must get a kick out of them. Some yards have about a dozen of those monsters all lit up and swaying in their yards. I suppose they are cheerful, though.

Lit-up wire reindeer frames don't do it either. They are really beat.

Then you've got the people who you can tell ran around all summer buying thousands of lights at garage sales. They've got them covering every square inch of their house and thrown over every little thing in their yard in a haphazard manner. I saw one yard last December where the guy had not only his entire house lit up worse than Chevy Chase, but he had everything else outlined in lights: the fence, the clothesline, one of those bathtub mangers, a couple old rusting car wrecks in his yard, an old fridge, and even his son's tree house in the back yard. A couple of his neighbors were pretty bad, too. Must be a status symbol or something.

I used to like those nets filled with lights perfectly spaced a few inches apart, those ones you drape over the shrubs, but anymore those look too commercialized and easy.

I can't stand any ones that blink on and off. I saw some icicles tonight that were blinking from one side of this guy's porch to the other and man was it gross.

I guess I like the ones that are simply hung on shrubs or trees and laid out by hand pretty evenly. I like it best when one color is pretty much used, with blue being my favorite, followed by white. I also like when someone has a single tree lit up way off in a field, sitting all by itself in the middle of nowhere.

My favorite house is this one where this guy has a pond, and around it he's got about 40 live spruce trees all decorated in blue lights, spirally wrapped around each tree. The pond is situated on a wide sweeping curve in the country and as you drive around the curve, it looks like the trees are slowly moving around the pond like its a big carousel in motion. Absolutely beautiful.

(Disclaimer: I think all homeowners who put up outdoor lights deserve credit for displaying their holiday spirit, even the ones who I think are tacky about it!)

They remind me of a flashing neon sign saying "Eat at Joe's" or something -- screaming commercialism. Example: Snoopy's overdone doghouse in "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

Why do blinkers suck?

The icicles would be lowest on my list of preference, and we don't use them, but I like to see lights displays. The more interesting the better! I don't bother to look at lights in neighborhoods where the CCRs require only white lights be used - what fun is a neighborhood full of only white lights? Still, I'm glad they put up lights anyway.

I like them all - the elegant displays, the retro displays, the tacky displays, the boring displays, the amazing displays.

and secondly, those stupid lit animals

escaped and landed in their yard.

the gaudier the better. I like my Christmas lights like I like My Man. Naw, just kiddin hunny. You da man. :hi: hi texasman!

I am Gaudy & like my lights outside everywhere, the more the better UGG UGGG "Tim toolman Taylor"

well when i bought it and plugged him in he had a defect, or maybe not, Snoopy has a 5 o'clock shadow and he has a saggy Santa hat. My neighbors refer to him as "Wino Snoopy"

and I wish our lights were working. You are so beautiful, and I wish too that you WERENT working so hard. Love you so much

Wino Snoopy! That's great!

i've always liked the little white ones too.

but i really do love all displays, we have a neighborhood called Candycane Lane, and they all really serious about their decorations, and we drive through it every year, it's a beautiful part of the holidays.

that deems itself "Candy Cane Lane" and has wonderful displays every Christmas. It's quite a sight to see, and good news, they have a huge box for Food Bank donations. :thumbsup:

Lots are stunning, some are incredibly creative and fun, a few are over the top, but there's always a traffic jam in that neck of the woods.

Here are some pics from last year: http://www.ee.ualberta.ca/~kees/cclane/

Just kidding. I know what you mean. But in my case, I take it on a house by house basis. It's really not so much the type of decorations used as the way in which the property owner has chosen to display them. One house in our neighborhood has those blow up things and it looks incredibly tacky. Another house has one and it blends in beautifully with the entire concept. Icicle lights can look spectacular on one elevation and icky on another.

Yeah, the blown-up things have to go.

I did see this one place tonight where the icicles didn't look all that bad, but it was along a porch that had all kinds of variations in the angles of the eaves. I think I hate icicles so much because they look like cobwebs you'd find in the darkest abysses of hideous cellars. ;)

Though my husband hasn't quite gotten the hang of how to string the lights so the extension cords are unobtrusive. I'd rate our house fair to mid on the tacky scale.

We did icicles--but they got old and dull.

Now we do the garlands/bows (green and red)--very different (for now) and quite pretty.

We also wrap the palm trees w/ amber lights and do the fronds in abstract green formation.

We do have reindeer--but they're brown and move--placed in the ferns -- very pretty tableau.

Then we have the....inflatable 8' snowmen...oh well.

So we're tacky and not so tacky...for now.