Where are all the Christmas lights?

We live in small town suburbia and as I was driving with my kids to the store tonight I noticed how few houses were decorated with Christmas lights.  We decorate every year, of course, with small children it is their favorite part of the season, seeing all the lights.  But even if we didn't have kids, I would still decorate, maybe not as much or maybe not as meticulously, but I would at least throw something festive on the house and bushes.

So where has this lost art of Christmas light decorating gone?  Is it just too much of a pain to go out in the cold and put lights up for a few short weeks only to have to either take them down in the cold or leave them on the house until spring?  Is it too much to expect the other houses in the neighborhood to help the festive mood by adding some twinkle to their normally mundane houses? 

I can remember as a kid how fun it was to drive around at night and see all the houses lit up.  Now, if you want to see lights you have to go to a special "Enchanted Park" or a "Candy Cane Lane" where houses are all decorated.  I understand we live in a world where not everybody celebrates the same holidays and I'm certainly not suggesting that everybody need decorate their house, I'm only saying that it feels that we are becoming lazy in our holiday output and could afford to kick it up a notch.  I mean, how can you not smile and feel like a kid again when you see a row of finely lit houses?  Maybe it would put a little more of the "holiday spirit" into us all.

Thanks for reading!

Busy Mommy Blogger