Monday, December 13, 2010

Outdoor Christmas decorations

Outdoor Christmas lights: Full beam ahead: Santas are increasingly popular, and cheap, low-energy lights widely available

t’s that time of year again. That warm Christmas glow is appearing on rooftops and in gardens across the land, as illuminated polar bears and reindeer are retrieved from attics and our sedate suburban landscape becomes a glittering wonderland — at least until Twelfth Night.

Yet, in truth, there is nothing quite as divisive as a home owner who decides to deck more than just the halls with boughs of holly. For every flashing Father Christmas silhouette on a gable end, there’s a disgruntled resident just down the road. (Some people are never happy, however; the Sussex town of Horsham made the news last week when locals criticised its festive lights – or rather lack of them – which had been reduced to save money. Shop keepers worry it will affect trade.)

At the other end of the scale, at Sonning in Berkshire, residents won an injunction against a neighbour who festooned his house with 22,000 fairy lights for almost 20 years. The order restricted him to a mere 300 lights, four inflatable cartoon characters, 240ft of colour rope lights and two illuminations in the front garden.

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