Perverting the Christmas Spirit
Posted on Sunday 23rd December 2007
It started insidiously with a holly wreath hung on one’s front door. Then a few candles on a window sill. Next came a line of lights along the eaves of the roof. And now Christmas seems to be an excuse for turning your house into the most distasteful light show possible.
Around this time of year Leicester would be punctuated by houses light up so brightly it’s a wonder pilots landing at East Midlands didn’t get confused and land on their rooftops. The owners seemed determined not only to quadruple their electricity bill in one month, but also engaged in a competition with their neighbours as to who’s house could be the bigger eyesore.
It’s not just me who’s noticed this and a couple of websites have appeared here and here. One of them has coined the phrase “House Bling”. In a similar way that some people try to show off by draping themselves in ridiculous amounts of 9ct Elizabeth Duke jewellery, houses become covered in such a visual cacophany that you wonder where the owners lost sight of reason and just hooked up as many electronics as they could fit onto their property.
I was hoping we had left that all behind, but unfortunately it’s caught on in Australia as well. We haven’t seen any here in Adelaide yet, but it has been flagged up in the national media here and here.
P.S: I’m aware that this is a grumpy old man rant, so don’t need to be told!
No, sounds like a perfectly reasonable objection to me!
One advantage of living in a street full of tenements is that it’s virtually impossible for them to do that here.
As for leicester, I would have thought that there were enough Sikhs and Hindus living there to show other folk how to make festivals of light look tasteful, as opposed to tacky…
Wow that looks really over done what with all those lights i think it spoils it when you go too mad like you say with all the bling when things are so overdone