I have been walking (and driving to some extent) around town and rather disappointed by the dearth of Christmas lights up. When I was a kid, the norm was to see every house on the block lit with lights, even with one string thrown out into the shrubbery near the porch as an afterthought. Today, the norm is more one string of lights on a house per block, and it is not uncommon to see 2-3 blocks with no lights on a house.
Had a discussion about the reasons for this with a friend a few days ago. She holds the opinion that the cost of electric has caused fewer people to want to put up lights. Especially in the current economy, people watch their pennies and putting up electric lights just for the purpose of decoration is not a good use of limited funds.
Me, I disagree. I think it is more a factor of time. Putting up lights, even just a string of them, takes time and planning. Given the limited amount of time most of us spend at home (I have seen studies indicating that the typical American spends less than 20% of their waking hours at home), we prioritize the things we do while there and putting up Christmas lights is just not high on the list of priorities.
Had a discussion about the reasons for this with a friend a few days ago. She holds the opinion that the cost of electric has caused fewer people to want to put up lights. Especially in the current economy, people watch their pennies and putting up electric lights just for the purpose of decoration is not a good use of limited funds.
Me, I disagree. I think it is more a factor of time. Putting up lights, even just a string of them, takes time and planning. Given the limited amount of time most of us spend at home (I have seen studies indicating that the typical American spends less than 20% of their waking hours at home), we prioritize the things we do while there and putting up Christmas lights is just not high on the list of priorities.
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