Originally posted by JCSullivan I know you didn't mean anything by "...crazy people doing these lights" but the first and last is my mom's and the second one is my sister's. ;-)
Over here, it takes a lot of effort and guts to put all these lights on at night because
1. Constant complaints from neighbourhood about the lights
2. Local council approval and requirement for doing this - anything ridiculous is possible with councils making funny laws
3. Putting up electricity cables and lightings around the house plus the trees are not considered normal here for Christmas - usually we sweat a lot by doing nothing at all with no ozone layer above us in oz (melanoma prevalence of Australian population is highest in the world)
4. Like what Arpe says, Sunset in summer happens after 9 pm or so afterwards... Eventhough burning coal to generate electricity is so cheap (government provides coal for the electricity company free of cost), households still get charged a lot for little use - A rip off.
I am sure putting the lights up in north america or canada are considered cool, funky and fun! Just a bit hard to do here and whoever did decorate their houses like that would be on our current affairs programme or 6 30 pm news.
Apology for what an supposedly innocent phrase
James