Back in the city, I wouldn’t have been able to do that. What my townhouse lacked in width, it made up for in height. Even though I am pretty comfortable with ladders, there was no way that I would have been able to hang lights on the roofline three stories above ground level. In seeking an equivalent festive solution, I found some cheerful illuminated snowflakes and hung them in the windows overlooking the street instead.
Now, at our home in the country, I can reach our first-story roofline with a solid stepladder and a spotter to hold it steady, no problem at all.
Since we arrived, we have done our best to put up our lights sometime in November, when the weather is fair and the winds are calm, minimizing any risk of my compact frame getting blown into the farmer’s field next door. Then, the evening after the installation, after it gets dark, we will run a quick test to review the individual performance of the lights as well as the overall effect. When we’ve determined that the house’s festive makeover has been successfully completed, we turn off the lights and wait.
Just because the lights are up doesn’t mean that they need to be on. However, therein lies the conundrum. When is the appropriate time to turn them on?
On the one hand, we wouldn’t want to appear odd to our neighbours and have the lights on too early. On the other hand, we wouldn’t want to appear like we lack spirit and turn them on strictly when Santa is on his way, making his rounds.
When we were new to the neighbourhood, we really didn’t want to make an inadvertent faux pas and end up as the object of town gossip. To strike a happy medium, we would just keep an eye on the other houses on our street, searching for clues and cues to know when an appropriate “normal” time would be.
What we have found is that once one neighbour starts, it seems to trigger a domino effect, and the rest of the neighbours follow suit. That being the case, the big question remains: Who will be the first to turn on their Christmas lights?
From year to year, December 1st seems to be the magic date that many of our neighbours have pegged as the appropriate time. However, I’ve seen other neighbourhoods in full light displays much earlier. I’ve even seen the first November snowstorm (where the snow is likely to stick around) as the cue to turn on the lights.
Either way, whether people have their outdoor Christmas lights on early or late is not for anyone to judge. It’s their house and their electricity bill. Nonetheless, when everyone has their lights on, the street can indeed be a festive sight to behold, evoking memories of holidays past with beautiful light displays that illuminated and brightened the dark evenings during the shortest days of the year.
As for us, we are pretty happy with December 1st as the rule of thumb, to not stick out like a sore thumb, and to let our Christmas lights shine for the holiday season.
Did you enjoy this post? If you did, your likes and shares are most appreciated.
If you haven’t already, please check out the rest of my blog at andrebegin.blog. From there, you can click on the “Follow” button to receive future posts directly in your inbox.
Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André
ANDRE BEGIN 
Leave a comment