Christmas Lights

Last night we drove around the Villages looking at how different people decorate for Christmas.  I would post pictures, but Ray convinced me just to look and enjoy without the camera,  So I will have to describe what we saw. 

Mostly it was like any other neighborhood, with some people going all out, some doing nothing, and everything in between.  Our local newspaper printed a map and addresses of houses that people wanted to show off, but we didn't really follow it.  We went looking for some of the ones near our house, then took a random drive through the various Villages.  The best ones we saw were on 3 cul de sacs in the Village of Santiago.  These 3 cul de sacs are right next to each other, so I think they are having a competition.  Each one had a theme.  In one, every house had the same lit angel, another had the same lit spiral tree.   At the end of each cul de sac there is a circle and they each decorated that as well, running the power out from their houses, across the road to the circle.  All 3 were done up beautifully.

We also drove through 2 of the town squares - Sumter Landing and Spanish Springs, to see what was going on for Christmas Eve.  Both have Christmas trees and had entertainment as usual, but they weren't singing Christmas Carols.  Sumter Landing was more crowded than Spanish Springs.  I attribute that to the face that the restaurants are close to the square and the square is in the center of the Villages, while Spanish Springs is further north and has fewer restaurants on the square. 

We were going to try a more methodical approach to seeing the lights tonight, but by this afternoon Ray had come down with a cold and wasn't feeling up to the drive.  We'll save the rest for another night.  I will note that we don't have much up this year.  Due to the construction of our new golf cart garage, the outlets in the front of the house are disconnected and anything else would be in the way of the workers.  We put out red and green light bulbs in our garage and front door entrance lights, hung some pine garland on either side of the garage, and put a few decorations in our front windows, but that's all for this year.  We will definitely make up for it next year.