Christmas lights 2011

Mysteryman said :

On behalf of the vast population of Canberrans who enjoy seeing Christmas lights, I’d like to say kiss our collective ass. We enjoy it. We enjoy making the outing with family and friends to see it. We enjoy the work put in by those who own the displays. We enjoy the sense of community that it creates. It seems to me that those things constitute having a life.

+1
(Although it IS important to consider the environmental impact. I still feel guilty about the lights we threw out in the last garage cleanup because they’d developed a nasty smell, it was the pvc wiring deteriorating I think, more toxins for landfill. If these new LED Christmas lights are good quality and long lasting I’d be interested in getting some.)

Classified said :

We bitch and moan about saving power and cutting emissions until it’s time for Christmas lights, then it becomes a competition for who’s can be best seen from space.

No, WE don’t. Certain members of society and some elected officials do. Most of the rest of us don’t.

rogueideas said :

Seriously, do people still take the time to do this? Christmas lights on suburban brick boxes is a more pointless activity than dancing the lambada, naked with a giant cheese grater. GET A LIFE PEOPLE!

On behalf of the vast population of Canberrans who enjoy seeing Christmas lights, I’d like to say kiss our collective ass. We enjoy it. We enjoy making the outing with family and friends to see it. We enjoy the work put in by those who own the displays. We enjoy the sense of community that it creates. It seems to me that those things constitute having a life.

John Moulis said :

Did you hear that idiot on 2CC saying that there had been a big reduction in people putting Christmas lights on their homes due to a “demographic change in the mindset of the population”? “Not good for the carbon footprint” and that people “would rather buy a goat for poor villagers in Africa”. I’m not making this up, he actually said this crap before I turned off the radio before confirming it hadn’t switched itself onto the ABC while I wasn’t looking.

The person in question described himself as “a demographer”. I call him something else. The fact is that there has been a reduction in the number of Christmas lights – not because of any swing to green and left views as he claims – but because of the massive increase in electricity bills caused by renewable energy targets and other greenie crap. There has, in fact, been a swing away from green and Left sentiment over the past year or so.

Don’t you just hate it when the trendy, politically correct Left tries to muscle in on Christmas?

Yep John, all backed up by your usual peer-reviewed evidence.

Did you hear that idiot on 2CC saying that there had been a big reduction in people putting Christmas lights on their homes due to a “demographic change in the mindset of the population”? “Not good for the carbon footprint” and that people “would rather buy a goat for poor villagers in Africa”. I’m not making this up, he actually said this crap before I turned off the radio before confirming it hadn’t switched itself onto the ABC while I wasn’t looking.

The person in question described himself as “a demographer”. I call him something else. The fact is that there has been a reduction in the number of Christmas lights – not because of any swing to green and left views as he claims – but because of the massive increase in electricity bills caused by renewable energy targets and other greenie crap. There has, in fact, been a swing away from green and Left sentiment over the past year or so.

Don’t you just hate it when the trendy, politically correct Left tries to muscle in on Christmas?

rogueideas said :

Seriously, do people still take the time to do this? Christmas lights on suburban brick boxes is a more pointless activity than dancing the lambada, naked with a giant cheese grater. GET A LIFE PEOPLE!

So I take it your cheesegrater has been through the mill.

@31

Probably because it takes so long to set it up and take it down.

KB1971 said :

rogueideas said :

…….
GIVING… give me a break. It’s a pissing competition. How is it possibly ‘giving’. Next you’ll be saying that Kyle Sandilands is misunderstood and a voice of tolerance and understanding.

If you wanna give, volunteer! Wouldn’t Christmas really be Christmas if we got our fat arses out of the suburbs and helped dish out some tucker to the homeless.

The whole practice is a sad indictment on our sad middle class existence – it’s a big billboard in lights that spells ‘narcissism’ – providing for many an inflated sense of self-importance!

Jeezuz, are you anti Chistmas? Environmental issues aside, it brings a lot of joy to children to go & look at the christmas lights every year. My kids love it.

OK, it may not be your cup of tea but is it really hurting anyone by doing it? Not really. Quite a few of these houses have a donation bucket & donate to a charity of their choice.

Live & let live I say.

[/howevermanyquotetagsnecessarytocloseallquotedmaterial]
Why can’t you hold on to all that marvellous Christmas magic for the children, and wait until Christmas Eve before unleashing it??

I just wonder what he’s hiding from the aliens in those foil covered pipes…

Classified said :

We bitch and moan about saving power and cutting emissions until it’s time for Christmas lights, then it becomes a competition for who’s can be best seen from space.

Yes – those goddam LEDs chew the coal like candy, don’t they 😛

I can’t quite figure out what it’s supposed to be. All I can see is public bathroom mirrors and faucets to be honest…

rogueideas said :

KaptnKaos said :

Gees lighten up, some people want to GIVE at christmas time, whether it be though lighting up their houses, GIVING donations though money or toys or gifts, but the point is they want to GIVE. Most of those responding here don’t, they wouldn’t know what giving is about – bet you are the minority that spoil everything for everyone in this country. If I had the time and money to light up my house like this, I would.

PS. the house in the pic does look great at night, the guy does this every year for the enjoyment of others – shame on him, hope you moronic fun police don’t kill this for everyone.

GIVING… give me a break. It’s a pissing competition. How is it possibly ‘giving’. Next you’ll be saying that Kyle Sandilands is misunderstood and a voice of tolerance and understanding.

If you wanna give, volunteer! Wouldn’t Christmas really be Christmas if we got our fat arses out of the suburbs and helped dish out some tucker to the homeless.

The whole practice is a sad indictment on our sad middle class existence – it’s a big billboard in lights that spells ‘narcissism’ – providing for many an inflated sense of self-importance!

Wow. Sanctimonious.

Not much…

Boring_Name said :

Garish Christmas lights aside, this shouldn’t be a matter of electrical use, as there is an abundance of supply at night. Coal turbines (which make up most of our supply) can’t be turned up or down easily, so they run constantly at peak demand (the levels present around 5:30-6:30PM when people arrive home from work and crank their AC up). There is enough over supply, in fact, that they effectively run the Snowy Hydro plant backwards by pumping water back up the mountain at night. This is why I am amazed when people complain that Christmas lights (or such) are a waste of electricity, or when turning off lights at night are used as some symbol of reducing electricity consumption.

By that argument it doesn’t matter if we run all our electrical stuff at full power all the time. It’s nonsense.

Outside peak hours the turbines are running, but under zero or minimal load from the generator, so their energy usage is minimal. Running electrical equipment like xmas lights puts extra load on the generators, thus more coal in the boilers and more CO2 out the chimney.

rogueideas said :

KaptnKaos said :

Gees lighten up, some people want to GIVE at christmas time, whether it be though lighting up their houses, GIVING donations though money or toys or gifts, but the point is they want to GIVE. Most of those responding here don’t, they wouldn’t know what giving is about – bet you are the minority that spoil everything for everyone in this country. If I had the time and money to light up my house like this, I would.

PS. the house in the pic does look great at night, the guy does this every year for the enjoyment of others – shame on him, hope you moronic fun police don’t kill this for everyone.

GIVING… give me a break. It’s a pissing competition. How is it possibly ‘giving’. Next you’ll be saying that Kyle Sandilands is misunderstood and a voice of tolerance and understanding.

If you wanna give, volunteer! Wouldn’t Christmas really be Christmas if we got our fat arses out of the suburbs and helped dish out some tucker to the homeless.

The whole practice is a sad indictment on our sad middle class existence – it’s a big billboard in lights that spells ‘narcissism’ – providing for many an inflated sense of self-importance!

Jeezuz, are you anti Chistmas? Environmental issues aside, it brings a lot of joy to children to go & look at the christmas lights every year. My kids love it.

OK, it may not be your cup of tea but is it really hurting anyone by doing it? Not really. Quite a few of these houses have a donation bucket & donate to a charity of their choice.

Live & let live I say.

Mr Gillespie said :

Christmas lights?

We’re not even in December yet…….

Seriously, I mean, what is it with people who put up their Christmas decorations, Christmas lights and whatever else Christmas, so many weeks in advance, and they are still doing it!!!

It takes months to install the lights and decorations. Our neighbours used to start decorating in mid to late October when they had 70,000 lights and turned the display on, on the 1st of December. When that grew to just over 100,000 they started in late September and removed the fixtures over a 6 week period starting at the end of January.

There is a lot of effort and planning that goes into these projects.

KaptnKaos said :

Gees lighten up, some people want to GIVE at christmas time, whether it be though lighting up their houses, GIVING donations though money or toys or gifts, but the point is they want to GIVE. Most of those responding here don’t, they wouldn’t know what giving is about – bet you are the minority that spoil everything for everyone in this country. If I had the time and money to light up my house like this, I would.

PS. the house in the pic does look great at night, the guy does this every year for the enjoyment of others – shame on him, hope you moronic fun police don’t kill this for everyone.

GIVING… give me a break. It’s a pissing competition. How is it possibly ‘giving’. Next you’ll be saying that Kyle Sandilands is misunderstood and a voice of tolerance and understanding.

If you wanna give, volunteer! Wouldn’t Christmas really be Christmas if we got our fat arses out of the suburbs and helped dish out some tucker to the homeless.

The whole practice is a sad indictment on our sad middle class existence – it’s a big billboard in lights that spells ‘narcissism’ – providing for many an inflated sense of self-importance!

Christmas lights?

We’re not even in December yet…….

Seriously, I mean, what is it with people who put up their Christmas decorations, Christmas lights and whatever else Christmas, so many weeks in advance, and they are still doing it!!!

Work is coming to an end to the Bissenberger Crescent, Kambah lights.

But due to a whining neighbour last year, there is a fence around the main attraction.

But also on a weird note, TAMS will be making Bissenberger Crescent a one way street from mid-December 2011 to early January 2012.
TAMS Letter-http://i611.photobucket.com/albums/tt193/Bus400/Miscellaneous/scan0001-3.jpg
Map-http://i611.photobucket.com/albums/tt193/Bus400/Miscellaneous/scan0002-1.jpg

GardeningGirl said :

So the annual Earth Hour doesn’t save anything? (Sorry, I think this might have been discussed before somewhere?)

The sentiment is positive. It leads people to changing their attitude to energy use, which in turn will save energy by reducing the demand. The event itself, though, doesn’t really save much. Electricity isn’t like water, it doesn’t gather somewhere waiting to be used. Although there are some ways to recapture wasted output (like using the Snowy Hydro scheme like a battery), the most efficient way to reduce energy use is to reduce the peak load.

I love Christmas lights but after realising the bad smell in the cupboard used to store occasionally used items was coming from the box of external Xmas lights (PVC wiring deteriorating?) I’m not buying any more!

Boring_Name said :

Garish Christmas lights aside, this shouldn’t be a matter of electrical use, as there is an abundance of supply at night. Coal turbines (which make up most of our supply) can’t be turned up or down easily, so they run constantly at peak demand (the levels present around 5:30-6:30PM when people arrive home from work and crank their AC up). There is enough over supply, in fact, that they effectively run the Snowy Hydro plant backwards by pumping water back up the mountain at night. This is why I am amazed when people complain that Christmas lights (or such) are a waste of electricity, or when turning off lights at night are used as some symbol of reducing electricity consumption.

Keep this in mind next time you are ready to complain about lights being a “waste of energy” and maybe think twice before turning on your air conditioner when you first get home instead.

So the annual Earth Hour doesn’t save anything? (Sorry, I think this might have been discussed before somewhere?)

And if anyone is using hollow piping for Xmas decorations or other garden construction (or disused pay tv poles?) please have a look at this article I just saw yesterday about the danger of small birds getting trapped.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/22/8955697-pvc-pipes-trapping-killing-birds-by-the-thousands

Gees lighten up, some people want to GIVE at christmas time, whether it be though lighting up their houses, GIVING donations though money or toys or gifts, but the point is they want to GIVE. Most of those responding here don’t, they wouldn’t know what giving is about – bet you are the minority that spoil everything for everyone in this country. If I had the time and money to light up my house like this, I would.

PS. the house in the pic does look great at night, the guy does this every year for the enjoyment of others – shame on him, hope you moronic fun police don’t kill this for everyone.