Advent Calendar: December 5

Prompt:
December 5 -
Outdoor Decorations -

Did people in your neighborhood decorate with lights? Did some people really go "all out" when decorating? Any stories involving your ancestors and decorations?

Unlike today, outdoor house decorating was generally pretty subdued when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s. The photo above, taken in 1982, is pretty typical of our home and neighborhood in Houston, Texas. I do remember that for many years all of the outdoor lights on our home were blue, which looked pretty neat against the orange paint trim on our brick house.

I've continued with the subtle style of outside decorating in my own home, which is built to look like homes did in the 20s, 30s, and 40s in this town. There's a swag on the front door (the photo at right is the one from 2006), a cedar garland with some twinkling white lights draped above the door, and multicolor lights in the two front windows flanking the door. This year I added some lighted wreaths on either side of the door and the garage. What's missing this year (so far, due to bad weather and my illness) are red lights wrapped around the white posts.

My town does up its historic square and a nearby park in style. The bridges and reflections off the water (at left and below) are especially nice:





----- Lights over the square that run from the top of the courthouse can just barely be seen in the background of the photo at right:


What I don't like are some of the cheesy decorations some people put outside their homes. The one below from a couple blocks away and a couple years ago is a particularly bad Nativity scene. Santa as Joseph? An angel as Mary? Um, no.


(This is post 5 in the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories hosted by Geneabloggers.com)

© Amanda Pape - 2009