slo’s MONDAY 12/23 poll - Christmas Lights Car Cruise 🚗🎄🎅🏼

[slo]

Happy Holiday Week!
This is always a fun, and sometimes stressful week, for most of us.
One way to decompress from the holiday rushing, is to get in the car and cruise around your area to look at people’s Christmas decorations in their yards. It’s something my DD21 and I do every year and tonight is the night we are going, which is what inspired this poll. I’m curious today…..

Do you designate a night for a Christmas car cruise to look at decorations?
If yes…..do you stay local or do you drive farther away?
Is your home a destination for people to come look at your decorations?
(multiple choice)



For Me……As I mentioned above, my DD21 and I do this every year - it’s a Christmas season tradition We go out to dinner at Dairy Queen (also tradition) and then go out for about 2 hours. We stay local in our county, and pick a different target area in our county every year. I’m very excited for tonight - it’s one of my favorite nights of the year

This is not my house and my house would not be a destination for people to look at a display. My DH does decorate, but not to the extent that people would make a special trip to look at.

 

[WDWEPCOT]

we did it as kids cause our parents used to do it I have not done it as an adult even though we do have an area in town that is known for their decorations It’s just so congestion it would be hard to get in there and see it
Have fun tonight looking at decorations I hope you get to see a lot of pretty houses!!!

 

[Babs Johnson]

DW and I took a “cruise” last night to see Christmas lights. We might go to a different area tonight.

 

[Meriweather]

We don't use a car, just walk around our housing development.
We've done it since we have moved here.
Always on Christmas Eve.....some family go, others just stay at the house.

 

[Kitty 34]

My sister and cruised our town about a week ago. It was fun and pretty.

 

[Micca]

Haven't cruised for Christmas lights since the kids were little. Our living room is pretty festive, I'll enjoy it from the sofa.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We have always gone out looking at house lights. Walking in the neighborhood or driving locally, mostly staying within the county.

 

[RUDisney]

We drive home on the scenic route from my Dad's house every Christmas Eve. It will be at least me and my DD in the car tomorrow night. We go through Nay Aug Park in Scranton. Scranton hosts a Christmas Lights Display every year and while not all lights are always working, it is beautiful to drive through it. There may or may not be folks collecting donations at the end of the display to help in the costs of the display. I'll make sure to take a few dollars, just in case.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

YES, I've done the Xmas Light cruising for as long as I've had children. AND BEFORE, 35+ years.

I live in a populous area so we don't have to travel far. Some years we've even parked and walked the street for "Christmas Lane". It's also our tradition to buy for the local food pantry because one street has always had the donation can ready and waiting!!

 

[hertamaniac]

Yes, we usually do. We have a historic district that is sometimes referred to as millionaires row. They are older homes that are well maintained and usually have gorgeous lighting.

 

[LoveDaisy]

I used to do it but less houses decorate and those that do are mostly inflatables which aren’t my thing. We drove around last year and it wasn’t worth it, not many houses with lights. Coworkers have mentioned they stopped putting up lights due to electric costs.

 

[PollyannaMom]

My family enjoys this, but it was more of a big deal when DS was little - I would look up a list of houses with music and stuff, and we would drive a little farther. But we tend to keep it to in-town now, just little detours on the way to/from places we'd normally be going.

I do also have fond memories of driving around with my grandmother too see the lights when I was a kid. (She probably did it so my mom could wrap presents in peace but it was really fun!)

 

[TiggerTrigger]

We do go out to drive around and look at lights. In fact, we went last night. I have my 7.5 hour holiday playlist through iTunes (combo of Apple purchases and old CDs uploaded), but I also have a Spotify holiday playlist that I assembled that's a little over 24 hours of holiday music.

Local vs. Distance - We currently stay local. Our town is separated into "villages" and there is a town-wide decorating contest where awards are given out within each village. The current awards are Best Lights, Best Traditional, Santa's Favorite, Best Doorway, and Best Religious. Best Doorway recently replaced Best Mailbox which replaced Best Block. There are a couple of villages not tied to this association that also do independent versions of this contest. Results are available online so you can plug in addresses into your nav apps. Some villages part of the main contest do their own on top of it. In the end, it works out to close to 300 spectacular displays. There are also some villages that still do their own version of Best Block, which is really nice. Our old town/neighborhood didn't decorate much and I was considered the over the top house, so we drove a much greater distance to neighborhoods widely known for their consistent over the top decorating back in those days. There's actually one where they theme by block and it's an HOA requirement to participate. I think if you opt out, you still have to opt in to people putting theme related pieces in your yard.

Alone vs. others - I usually go with my family, but DD16 has a friend who lives right near one of the best known neighborhoods for lights. So, if they get together over the holidays, I usually pop into that neighborhood and do a solo drive through the lights. It's nice because they're one of the neighborhoods where groups will sponsor hayrides or those trailers with bench seating for light ride throughs. We have too many main roads in our town cutting up the villages for that to be possible, but we did have a hug SUV limo stop in front of our house the other night and it was filled with a group going around to look at lights.

Destination House - Our old neighborhood was so bad about decorating that we were a destination house. It's not like the stuff you see on the tv shows, but it was much more than anyone else was doing and that house had a tiny front lawn, so it always looked like a lot (about 100 strings of lights all over the landscaping and yard, 16 spiral trees of varying sizes, illuminated deer feeding on green lights, santa/sleigh/deer/presents, snowmen, a couple of projectors for snowfall and flashing light effects, wrapped trees with the dangling strands for that weeping willow effect, candles in the windows, several areas with the big plastic icicle lights, big snowflake lights, and I had a few inflatables for a while (large snowglobe and Frosty). Where we live now, I have little to no chance of being a true destination house. I live about two blocks away from a family whose display is about as over the top as it gets. We're talking lights on every inch of the home, the lawn, the trees as well as lit arches over all of the walkways and driveway. The entire lawn, air spaces, trees, roof, etc. are also filled with illuminated figurines. They also have a movie screen in it all playing whatever their theme is for that year. Oh, and of course it also "dances." The only reasons we're sort of a destination are 1. We face into a cul de sac where nearly everyone decorates. We have one of the larger and brighter displays of the bunch, so we'd be in contention for "best block" if they went back to giving that award. 2. The house on the right side of the cul de sac entrance often wins for Best Religious for his big illuminated hay filled manger. So, it brings people back to our little spot.

 

[lanejudy]

We take a drive after church on Christmas Eve.

 

[leebee]

I love Christmas lights, and keep the multi-colored icicle lights on my porch lit all year! We ALWAYS went to "see the lights" when I was a kid. There was a nearby town with a neighborhood where the lights were amazing, and we'd always go there. There was usually Chinese food involved at home after the drive!

DH and I took the resident now-8-year old last Christmas to see the lights, and ended with a stop at the elementary school in the next town. One of the town's families sponsors a light display at the school, and we can park and get out, walk under and through the lights, etc. We had started the evening with peppermint frostys from Wendy's and we all had a wonderful time. This year, he asked me, "Can we get an ice cream and go driving around... " and I was getting all warm and fuzzy inside, thinking he remembered last year so fondly, when he concluded with, "...so I can look in people's windows and see what they are watching on TV?" HAHAHAHAHA, so much for my memories! (yes, we'll take him again this year, probably tonight)

Our town also does a light display along the river walk trail. I haven't been; the first year I had covid, the second year it was flooded out, the 3rd year I was on crutches due to a knee injury, and last year I was 6 months post-knee replacement and my ortho suggested that perhaps walking along a river trail, with muddy/slushy terrain underfoot, with the occasional tree roots, in the dark, wasn't such a good idea! We are planning to go on Thursday or Friday this week, weather-depending.

 

[tvguy]

Well, we do go look at Christmas lights, but as a classic car owner, a "Christmas Lights Car Cruise" is slightly different. That is usually an organized event by car clubs, where owners of a specific car, on a specific route, at a specific time, usually with a fee to enter, often collected for charity. The Mustang, Corvette, Camaro, Corvair, Model T, Model A clubs around here do that type thing. I do not do that.
There are certain areas here that are known for their Christmas light displays. Dovewood Court here is popular, and the Fab 40s is too. I have done the Fab40s, but it is gridlock so avoid it now.

 

[Diznygrl]

I love Christmas lights, and keep the multi-colored icicle lights on my porch lit all year! We ALWAYS went to "see the lights" when I was a kid. There was a nearby town with a neighborhood where the lights were amazing, and we'd always go there. There was usually Chinese food involved at home after the drive!

DH and I took the resident now-8-year old last Christmas to see the lights, and ended with a stop at the elementary school in the next town. One of the town's families sponsors a light display at the school, and we can park and get out, walk under and through the lights, etc. We had started the evening with peppermint frostys from Wendy's and we all had a wonderful time. This year, he asked me, "Can we get an ice cream and go driving around... " and I was getting all warm and fuzzy inside, thinking he remembered last year so fondly, when he concluded with, "...so I can look in people's windows and see what they are watching on TV?" HAHAHAHAHA, so much for my memories! (yes, we'll take him again this year, probably tonight)

Our town also does a light display along the river walk trail. I haven't been; the first year I had covid, the second year it was flooded out, the 3rd year I was on crutches due to a knee injury, and last year I was 6 months post-knee replacement and my ortho suggested that perhaps walking along a river trail, with muddy/slushy terrain underfoot, with the occasional tree roots, in the dark, wasn't such a good idea! We are planning to go on Thursday or Friday this week, weather-depending.

I thought I was the only one who did that while looking at lights. Hey, I can't help it if you're going to leave your blinds wide open at night and I'm just driving through....

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

We DO go out every year and look at Christmas lights. We don't have enough decorations to attract lookers. It would be kind of fun to do a setup like that sometime tho.

 

[BayouQueen]

We have done this every year of my lifetime. Usually two outings, to cover different areas. This year there seem to be more decorations than ever before. Maybe because of new offerings in projectors , LEDs and inflatables?

Looking at lights is really fun. My favorite is the house with all kinds of dogs — blow mold, tinsel, inflatable. Snoopy, Paw Patrol, Pluto…every kind! Omg it’s darling.

 

[Dan Murphy]

When the kids were younger, and when the grandkids were younger, we did. But in recent years, the residents of the two most prolific nearby communities really have slacked off. We were really surprised a few years in a row. After leaving Christmas church service yesterday afternoon, this thread must have been stuck in my brain. I asked Marie if she wanted to go see the lights in Rosemont (local folks here will know that town). They do it up fabulously, both residents and more so, the town itself. We drove there and spent about 45 minutes looking at the Christmas splendor. Did not disappoint.

Hope you had a fun evening with your buddy, Katie, Sandy. Merry Christmas, and thanks for your morning get togethers here.