Decorate Your Yard

The more Christmasy it looks, the better. Red, green and other colored lights are good to start out. In the last five years or so there's been a trend for fund-raising "holiday lights" extravaganzas where the public is invited onto zoo or other park grounds at night to see lights arranged in all sorts of elaborate conformations. The ones I've seen have avoided Christmas images of all kinds. Strands of colored lights are now sold in packages marked "Holiday Lights, and so also the long standing tradition of decorating yards with colored lights is being re-packaged as "holiday tradition". For this reason, to make a yard look specifically like Christmas, it may be that adding some kind of Christmas-specific imagery or figures would help with the statement. Animatronics and special effects artist Jack Buffington of "Buffington Effects" is helping me create a team of 3-D flying, galloping reindeer driven by Santa in his sleigh, which will replace the static, plywood decorations I made over ten years ago that have been through many wind and rain storms. I'm also designing a 1950's style "Merry Christmas" sign to place on the roof overlooking the scene. Send yard photos to "Yards 'n Cards/The Culture of Christmas", the forum following these recommendations.

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