In a nearby neighborhood, there is one of THOSE houses that sports Christmas decorations of every sort: tree lights; house lights; lights strung between house and trees; lighted wire reindeer; painted wooden cut-out-and-stand-up figures covering the lawn, animated dolls (elves, Santa and the missus) in little booths to protect them from the weather; a giant lawn-menorah; outdoor speakers blaring Christmas music; and a HUGE scary-looking two-and-a-half-story snowman beside the house.

Some of the decorations stay up all year, like the lights, the booths and THAT SNOWMAN. They bring in a truck with a cherry-picker in autumn to decorate (and change bulbs, presumably), then pound stakes into the ground for the wooden figures before the ground freezes. Slowly, weekend by weekend, they add more items till December; then they turn on the lights and stop traffic for the month. There's a wooden box on a pole near the sidewalk to take DONATIONS from anyone who cares to contribute to the garishness!!! And, of course, most of the decor stays up through the winter until it's warm enough outside to put some of the things away.

It's certainly a neigborhood "attraction", but I'd hate to be one of their neighbors!

As an apartment dweller, I use lights inside sometimes (I don't always get the big tree up!) but not to decorate the windows. What I like to do for the windows is to take decorative flags with holiday designs, and hang them from tension bars (placed between the window-sash and the mini-blinds). Not only does the outdoor observer see something Christmas-y (especially in the evening with the house-lights on), but indoors I get to look at something cheerier than the leafless trees through the window!