Energy Wasters
Our local Christmas Crazy House......Martha Stewart Would Have A Field Day With This One
Where do these people find the time for this?! This Christmas brought to you by General Electric.
There’s something about the holiday spirit that encourages even the Scrooges among us to break loose of a little extra cash to light up our homes and yards with Christmas lights. One or two strands of lights and/or the occasional fake reindeer is about what everyone seems to be doing these days (our house has both a Menorah and a reindeer light in the window). But there's always that one family that seems to go mad with the lights.
Above is a house that's infamous in our neighborhood because not only is their home lit up like a runway but they have an outdoor speaker system that plays continuous holiday tunes all night! Just shoot me. I'd hate to be their neighbor. Oh and yes, most of those lights are flashing, I'm having a seizure just writing this.
I understand wanting to delight your children or grandchildren but I can't imagine what their electric bill must be every month! How can they afford it?! After paying their light bill do they have anything left for presents? Can you imagine? "Where's my present grandpa?" "Just open your eyes!"...followed by wows and then the eventual, "Can I have my present now?"
Can you imagine having children in this house? "Honey I can't get the kids to sleep again?" Gee, I wonder why.
We just don't live in an era where we can do this anymore, what kind of message do we send to our children when we wantonly waste energy like this? These kind of personal lighting displays perplex me just as much as the big, gas guzzling SUV's that I see all over New York City do. Someone needs to tell Manhattanites that Murray Hill is just an expression.
The lighting displays held at community centers such as zoos and parks are fine. Yes, they waste energy but at least they're intended for the masses not the Mr. & Mrs. I understand that in in the suburbs people like up their houses with amazing light displays but they're intended to raise money for charities and bring awareness to those charities....okay. That's a little better.
We have entire neighborhoods in Brooklyn devoted to spectacular holiday light displays. If you're ever in Dyker Heights in December they're worth checking out. Yes, I'm a hypocrit as I take Lily to gawk at them too....just like everybody else.
We use only LED lights. LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights, are a new option to traditional holiday lighting, because they use 10 to 100 times less energy. Aesthetically they are basically indistinguishable from typical holiday lights — but you’ll sure see the difference when the energy bill comes. I know we do.
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But it is for the masses!! People (well ok I don't know about people) but I waste alot of fuel driving around neighborhoods during Christmas time checking out lights. I won't personally do that to my house because I am too cheap. I think it's ok to indulge once a year. Big cities do it every day all year long and we are expected to save on a personal level every day all year long. So I think Christmas should be off limits , period. If they want to spend it then I will drive around and look! LOVE YOU! Please don't be mad! It's just that, some of us need the lights for when we are on our way to the in-laws, it really is for the greater good.xxoo HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
"If we played by the rules all of the time we wouldn't have any fun" -Katherine hepburn
Thanks for the great post!