In Search of Christmas Lights

Nothing puts me in the Christmas spirit more than Christmas lights. I love driving around town seeing homes lit up. I love going downtown to see the giant tree fully decorated for Christmas.

At least once during the Christmas season we will fill our travel mugs with hot cocoa, play Christmas music, and head out to find the best lights in town. Some years we’ve taken advantage of displays set up in parks or at the zoo. Most of the time we simply drive around some of the nicer neighborhoods where we’ve seen lights before.

If the weather is good, we’ll get out of the car and walk around a neighborhood that is all lit up. If the weather is rainy, we view it more from the car. Sometimes the rain will cause light reflections in the road, and we’ll get out and take a few pictures.

If our schedule allows, we try to catch one of the Christmas boat parades. It’s fun to watch the boats all decked out for Christmas. If we miss the parade, we can go later and see the boats in the marina. There are always several boats all lit up, and on a calm evening the lights reflect beautifully in the water. More photo ops!

Any way we decide to go about it, it always ends up being a festive, yet relaxing evening.

We tried putting lights on our own house for a year or two but soon decided that it was more work than we wanted. For now, we’ll enjoy everyone else’s lights.