OTT outdoor Xmas lights

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SarahMc

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Am I a scrooge for hating OTT outdoor Christmas lights? I think they are garish, tacky, antisocial, environmentally unfriendly and harmful to birds.

I think they are representative of the worst excesses of the celtic tiger. Perhaps I am taking it too seriously, and should chuck some money in the inevitable charity bucket outside the worst culprits, but I really think the offenders should be shamed rather than lauded.
 
SarahMc said:
I think they are representative of the worst excesses of the celtic tiger. Perhaps I am taking it too seriously, and should chuck some money in the inevitable charity bucket outside the worst culprits, but I really think the offenders should be shamed rather than lauded.
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I really can't imagine you're seeing the worst offenders if you believe they have charity buckets outside - have a stroll around South Finglas one of these nights ;-)
 
Santas climbing up rope ladders seems to be a new thing this year.
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These have been around 2 or 3 years.

Have neither seen nor heard of this before?!
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Me neither, I would imagine the money raised (if any) is used to pay for the electricity or to cover the cost rather than for charity.
 
I used to like it when you had the odd house here and there decorated.

There used to be a couple of really good ones locally about 7 or 8 years ago, and all the children from over the area used to love going to see 'Santas house'.

Now they are everywhere, but not done with the same class of course.

I think it is now just an indication of how crass and tacky our society has become. Plus the whole 'im better than you' factor. People in verysocially deprived areas with their houses lit up like a bonfire for 7 or 8 weeks - I would not like to be paying their bills in January!! But perhaps they just stall some of their payments.

The Daily Star/Big Brother/Hollyoaks/FHM generation, eh?;)
 
SarahMc said:
inevitable charity bucket outside the worst culprits,
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Never heard of this before honestly. It never occurred to me to turn my house into a well lit begging bowl... hmmm sounds like a good idea ;)




GeneralZod said:
Santas climbing up rope ladders seems to be a new thing this year.
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I've seen these around for a few years.

RMCF said:
I think it is now just an indication of how crass and tacky our society has become. Plus the whole 'im better than you' factor. People in verysocially deprived areas with their houses lit up like a bonfire for 7 or 8 weeks - I would not like to be paying their bills in January!!
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Isn't 'crass' and 'tacky' all a matter of opinion ? Also at which point in our history have we ever had a perfect society? The economic boom didnt bring snobbery with it. Snobbery was always around. I remember when employers would bin your resume, without reading it, if your address had the wrong post code.
I'm not saying its' you but I've heard a lot of, maybe too much nostalgia for the hair shirts of 'the good old days' with the Celtic Tiger always being to blame for some perceived ill.
 
SarahMc said:
. Perhaps I am taking it too seriously, and should chuck some money in the inevitable charity bucket outside the worst culprits,
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Yes, in Carrigaline there is one that has been doing this for years, with a charity bowl at the roadside wall.

(Maybe they just don't put charity bowls in the houses in Dublin :D )

We do an annual trip in Cork, going around to the various estates and gawking at the best examples. One estate in particualar springs to mind. It's out the Ballyvolane road, after the Dunnes Stores shopping centre, and then next estate on the left. There seems to have been an annual competition as to who could have the most reindeer pulling the lifesized sleigh in the front garden (as well as santa climbing up the whole outside wall to the chimney).

Bah Humbug.
 
SarahMc said:
Am I a scrooge for hating OTT outdoor Christmas lights? I think they are garish, tacky, antisocial, environmentally unfriendly and harmful to birds.

I think they are representative of the worst excesses of the celtic tiger. Perhaps I am taking it too seriously, and should chuck some money in the inevitable charity bucket outside the worst culprits, but I really think the offenders should be shamed rather than lauded.
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Think what you like, but when I am driving with the children they think that it is brilliant! That's what I like about it the most.
 
ninsaga said:
Think what you like, but when I am driving with the children they think that it is brilliant! That's what I like about it the most.
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I would have to agree with this point of view to a certain extent.

There is a guy living in our estate who has decorated his house for many years now. He collects money and donates a cheque each year to his chosen charity.

He has started to get some work out of it as people get him to hang their outdoor decorations.

On Christmas Eve or day when people are finished at mass they proceed to drive by the house and all the kids love this part of the festivities. His neighbours might not be too keen on the trail of cars driving by but the look of delight on the kids faces is something else.
 
apparently Galway Airport had to ask one home owner in Roscam in Galway to tone down the lights as they were interfering with landing planes:eek:


daithi
 
Harmful to birds

See [broken link removed], and that is just run of the mill artificial lighting, imagine how freaked out wildlife is by some of the illuminated houses.

Charity buckets
These are very common where I live.


"Think what you like, but when I am driving with the children they think that it is brilliant! That's what I like about it the most. "

Children also think fireworks and bangers at hallowe'en are brilliant, that doesn't necessarily mean we need to import that custom.
 
I have always wondered why you see so many of these massive light shows in social housing estates, yet relatively few in what would be considered the more 'well to do' areas.
 
We have relatively new next door neighbours. They have small kids so having seen what they did at Halloween I was expecting a fair splash of flashing lights outside their house for Christmas. By the end of November the switch was flicked and on went every set of lights that it's possible to purchase in the two Euro shop!

It's a little bit like this.... http://farm1.static.flickr.com/108/316682138_a677cf83fe.jpg
 
in the good old days you had to go into peoples houses to see they had no taste, now you can see it for yourself at xmas
 
RMCF said:
I have always wondered why you see so many of these massive light shows in social housing estates, yet relatively few in what would be considered the more 'well to do' areas.
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Nothing to do with who pays for it at the end of the day of course. lol



Those gaudy outdoor Christmas lights , all over the country , send over 19,000 tons of CO2 over the few weeks of Christmas this year. Shame on those who damage the environment unnecessarily - our children and grandchildren will not thank our generation when they look back at our damaged planet in a generation or two.

If everyone put up a few more lights, lets burn more fossil fuel to power them and raise sea levels another little bit.
 
r2d2 said:
We have relatively new next door neighbours. They have small kids so having seen what they did at Halloween I was expecting a fair splash of flashing lights outside their house for Christmas. By the end of November the switch was flicked and on went every set of lights that it's possible to purchase in the two Euro shop!

It's a little bit like this.... http://farm1.static.flickr.com/108/316682138_a677cf83fe.jpg
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Yeah thats the kind of tackiness I am chatting about. That is pure awful, but looks like so many of the ones I see locally.

I am a great believer in 'less is more' when it comes to things like Xmas displays.
 
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