Christmas Light Sightseeing?

[adrian]

It was a family tradition to go out and just go holo holo around the city and just look at what peopel put up for their xmas lights. But now, since my Mom is busy with a care home operation, then we can't do that (its not the same w/out my Mom).

Can anyone post pics of various local xmas lights? If I go on TheBus, then I can only see the lights on Farrington Hwy (or on Waipahu St. if I take either 432 or 43).

[pzarquon]

Well, there's always Honolulu City Lights (http://www.honolulu.gov/mayor/citylights/). Turns out the lighting ceremony is on Dec. 4. If you can't be there in person, it'll be broadcast live on Olelo (Oceanic 54).

Some folks in my neighborhood in Mililani go hog wild with the lights... I'd hate to see their electric bill. We only put up a couple of strings, though I've joked for years about picking up one of those gaudy reindeer...

[Glen Miyashiro]

Then again, it is possible to go overboard (http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/26/neighborhood.grinch.ap/) with the Christmas light displays.

[adrian]

Well, there's always Honolulu City Lights (http://www.honolulu.gov/mayor/citylights/). Turns out the lighting ceremony is on Dec. 4. If you can't be there in person, it'll be broadcast live on Olelo (Oceanic 54).

Oh cool!

Maybe the family can go there and take pics.

[808_m3]

Near my place, there is actually a neighborhood where a bunch of families on a street decorated all their homes with christmas lights and other holiday decorations. I'm not talking about a simple string of lights on your roofline. These guys go ALL OUT. It's pretty neat to see them all lit up at night.

What's kind of funny is they re-labeled their street as "Santa Claus Way."

[Linkmeister]

Oh, yeah. On the way up Kaonohi just makai of the golf course (Pearl CC) there's a driveway to about six or eight townhouses which has gone bananas for years. Wooden candy canes lining either side of the driveway; every house has lights...we call it "Candy Cane Lane."

One driveway up there's a little hillock next to the townhouses, and somebody puts a ton of free-standing lighted figures there.

[pzarquon]

Some of these displays are so elaborate, they're mind boggling. Having seen their effect on some narrow residential streets, though, I also have a great deal of empathy for hapless neighbors. The sight must be breathtaking when you're just driving by... but if it's what you see out your window 24x7, along with crowds and litter and noise... yike.

Stories of neighborhood displays turning sour (http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1130wonderland30.html) are increasingly common (http://www.starbanner.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041201/NEWS/41201020/1001/FEATURES01) (this second story is out of my wife's home town, Ocala, Florida). This story out of Silicon Valley (http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2004/11/29/740163.html) is being carried everywhere.

[AbsolutChaos]

I used to live on a small city in Ohio. Across from me was a dead-end street. Every neighbor on that street would put up coordinating Xmas light displays. For the months of Nov and Dec we'd have tons of cars crawling slowly along the street in the evenings, plus the senior citizen's van would tour it several times a night. The display put a lot of pressure on the rest of us surrounding houses to put up lights--we didn't want to be seen as grinches at Xmas! It was great to look at, but sometimes I wondered if people who lived on that street resented having to put up such an elaborate display rather than ruin the tradition.