Outdoor Christmas Displays: What’s Tacky, What’s Not? [Block Talk]

ACROSS AMERICA — Little white lights or a kaleidoscope of colors? Our survey is by no means scientific, but it reveals some preferences of Patch readers when it comes to lights, inflatables and other outdoor holiday decorations.

For this installment of Block Talk, we asked readers to bring their best Clark Griswold to our questions about what they like most and least about their neighbors’ displays. We asked: When it comes to outdoor Christmas decorations, what’s tasteful and what isn’t? If it has to be inflated, is it still a decoration, or is it technically a swimming pool toy?

“The more outrageous the better as far as I am concerned,” Bob, who lives in Milwaukee, commented on Across America Patch. “Thanks to LED lighting, people can go totally crazy [without] worrying about overloading their systems.”

However, sharp utility cost increases are expected this winter, and that could temper some people’s holiday spirit.

“It will be interesting to see if the anticipated significant increase in utility costs causes people who normally go all-out to go with a more restrained look this year,” Bob said.

A reader who hopes neighbors will continue to light up their streets observed, “All holiday light displays are welcome and appreciated.”

Holiday decorating can be a lonely endeavor, according to one reader, who lamented, “We are the only house on our block that decorates for every holiday.”

When lights and decorations go up too early, it needles another reader, who wrote, “I like when they wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate and celebrate Christmas. Just as we used to do when good old American traditions were still valued.”

About Those Lights ...

“The pretty white lights,” someone said in answer to our question about what readers like best about their neighbors’ decorations.

“Love everything but the plain white lights,” another reader observed.

“Anything beyond the pretty white lights” is tacky, someone else said.

“When there is no plan to the color scheme,” another said, “or especially when they use a combination of cool white and warm white lights.”

See? No consensus.

‘Just Say No To That’

We asked: When do holiday displays cross the line from being tasteful to making you want to stab out your own eyeballs?

The eye-stabbing moment comes “when the lawn and house look like a garden center for Christmas sales,” one reader said.

Another reader, who claimed to “never” have felt the urge to poke out their eye when looking at their neighbors’ holiday displays, observed, “It’s the political signs that could go.”

Bring on the holiday decorations.

“I like the creativity,” one reader said.

“I like plenty of lights, and most of my neighbors do a wonderful job decorating with lights,” another person said. “Thanks to all of them for brightening the dreary winter nights.”

But there are limits, and for that reader it is “when they have a mess of plastic blow molds and cartoon characters.”

“Example — Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse is not Christmas. Also, armies of tin soldiers/nutcrackers. Just say no to that.”

“I like them all,” another person wrote, adding, however, that “when people don't have any sense on how to decorate, and they just throw the stuff willy-nilly with no rhyme or reason … it looks bad.”

Another reader doesn’t like it when neighbors “just throw lights on the bushes without proper spacing.”

“Net lights look awful, too,” the person said.

“When lights are just tossed onto shrubs with little effort, why even bother?” someone else pointed out.

“Try to make everything match,” another person wrote. “Too many things that don’t match looks very junky.”

One reader finds it unsettling “when there is no consistency with the decor.”

“Filling your yard with blow up decorations next to blow molds that have nothing to do with each other is too much,” the person said. “I like both types, but they need to make sense to be next to each other.”

About those inflatables …

‘If It Floats Your Boat’

We learned the premise “if it has to be inflated, it’s a pool toy, not a Christmas decoration” is not universally shared.

“If it floats your boat,” one reader said, “what do I care?”

“Only funny in Florida,” another commented.

“Lazy substitute for really decorating,” someone else said.

“Hate them with every fiber of my being,” another person said. “They spend most of the season deflated on the lawn and are just tacky.”

“Used to hate them,” said one reader who previously “thought they were trashy,” but has no fuss with them now because “they have improved.”

Two people said they love them. “I like them,” someone else said, qualifying the answer, “but in moderation.”

Expressing a similar sentiment, another reader likes them, as long as “there are not too many.”

No argument, one reader said, calling them “pool toys.”

“Not a fan (pun intended),” someone else said.

And another voice heard from:

“Tacky, tacky and tacky.”

About Block Talk

Block Talk is a regular Patch feature offering real-world advice from readers on how to resolve everyday neighborhood problems. If you have a neighborhood etiquette question or problem you'd like for us to consider, email beth.dalbey@patch.com, with Block Talk as the subject line.

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