christmas lights

[Flyover]

That was a year ago. My new opinion is that I don't like Christmas lights. They're a huge waste of energy, especially since everyone stays inside glued to their phones anyway. Bah humbug.

 

[pjones]

That was a year ago. My new opinion is that I don't like Christmas lights. They're a huge waste of energy, especially since everyone stays inside glued to their phones anyway. Bah humbug.

Lol, I think part of the goal is to create an event where families can get together and go outside to look at all the pretty lights, give them a reason to go outside, create memories, and become active at such a sediment time of year.

I also like that they make my drive home from work much prettier and interesting than the usual daily grind, also my now 5 year old daughter gets super excited to see all the pretty lights around our neighborhood and the joy that she has when we put up our lights is hard to say no to.

I'm always happy when I see new people put up lights where previously there were none. It may not be the most energy/environmentally efficient thing to do (specially in coal produced areas) but with the new LED strings it is such a reduction from prior usage that it's much less of a concern now to the point where falling asleep with the TV on, once or twice, may use more energy than those lights. With it getting so dark so early I think a lot more people would feel the effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder without them... So technically speaking, it might actually be healthier to have them

 

[Flyover]

@pjones: I "liked" your comment because I basically don't strongly disagree with any of it (except that last part about S.A.D. -- highly speculative!) ...but still I say BAH HUMBUG. Glad "the Holidays" are finally over.

Scholars seem to agree Jesus was probably born in July. The whole Santa Claus/decorated conifer trees thing is adapted from pre-Christian Germanic lore. If we need a cozy twinkly wintertime solstice holiday I think we could make up a better one that doesn't waste so many resources and isn't so easy for commercialization to pervert/ruin. The best part of Christmas is how charitable people become, so what if there was a winter holiday that was purely about that?

Besides that, what I'd like to see is a holiday where people try to use as little gas/electricity as they can for some period of time. And minimize light pollution too -- that way during the holiday people could go outside at night and look up and see the Milky Way.

 

[pjones]

@pjones: I "liked" your comment because I basically don't strongly disagree with any of it (except that last part about S.A.D. -- highly speculative!) ...but still I say BAH HUMBUG. Glad "the Holidays" are finally over.

Scholars seem to agree Jesus was probably born in July. The whole Santa Claus/decorated conifer trees thing is adapted from pre-Christian Germanic lore. If we need a cozy twinkly wintertime solstice holiday I think we could make up a better one that doesn't waste so many resources and isn't so easy for commercialization to pervert/ruin. The best part of Christmas is how charitable people become, so what if there was a winter holiday that was purely about that?

Besides that, what I'd like to see is a holiday where people try to use as little gas/electricity as they can for some period of time. And minimize light pollution too -- that way during the holiday people could go outside at night and look up and see the Milky Way.

I couldn't agree with you more. Christmas has always bothered me with how commercial it is and I would be super excited if it changed into something different. I'm not a strongly religious follower so I'm not set on its religious attributes but rather the good will and family social activities that come along with it. It's such a happy time of year at such a dreary time of the season (sorry Australia, we need it to be at this time of year over here, but since you get all the cool animals were taking this one!) There are many others who do follow it for the religious reasons though so there may be some opposition with making this change. :/

In Canada there is a guy named Chris who once decorated his pet moose with energy efficient LED lights and biodegradable tinsel and ornaments, then he walked through the city with his moose so together they could pull cars out of the snow as an act of charity, while singing hockey songs. The mooses name was Jessy, but with the locals accent it was pronounced more like "Jay-Cee". Perhaps we could base the new holiday on him instead. But since most of us don't have pet moose perhaps we could decorate up our houses, and maybe use something that simulates antlers inside to pay recognition to the moose, something biodegradable but that also makes the house smell nicer... We could call this new holiday "Chrismoose"...

Maybe the S.A.D. Thing is a stretch for the people out there but I'de like to believe I'm doing somehow for the raccoon that lives in my hedge at night. Maybe it's saving them from depression... Or at the vary least from tipping on all the branches in there. I can't even pull out a pop can from in there without getting all tangled up and scraped!

Disclaimer: The validity of Chris may or may not be entirely fictional, the fact checkers are still working on this one.