CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

At this time of the year I'm usually here whinging about the weather.

How hot and steamy it is

and that I'd rather be somewhere else

..... preferably somewhere cold and snowy....

and because of the heat I usually don't enjoy Christmas.

Even with the aircon going it struggles with a house full of hot bodies ( usually around 20 ) who go in and out the door to the garden room and let the hot air in.

However this year the weather is just about perfect for me.

Warm but not hot, a little sun and a little rain that keeps the temperature down to around 28C in the day and down to cool nights of about 20C.

So on a lovely Summer night in the days before Christmas there is nothing nicer to do than go and look at Christmas lights ...

on  houses .

In recent years more and more houses are being decorated with Christmas lights.

People often start with a few and add to them every year.

The fact that you can buy LED lights that are solar powered means that huge electricity need not be the result either.

Last night Tony and I set off after tea with the addresses of all the houses in this year's Christmas Lights Competition.

Brisbane is a large sprawling city spread out over a huge area so there was no possibility of looking at many. We decided to drive to a neighbouring suburb where we once lived and look at a few in that neighbourhood.

I have to tell you that they were outstanding.

The owners must have been working for weeks/ months to get these displays ready.

Lots of families were out looking too and the City Council provides buses to take people to see the lights so at times there were traffic jams while these buses were trying to wind their way through narrow suburban streets choked with families out to enjoy the spectacle.

Christmas carols were playing and the mobile ice-cream vans were doing a roaring trade while wide eyed littlies in prams and on foot decked out in Santa hats were enjoying the balmy night air way past their bedtimes.

Our final stop was at an amazing house where the lights and music were synchronised in an absolutely breath taking display.

The house was on a corner and opposite there was a wide section of grassed footpath where chairs had been set out so that older viewers could sit and watch the display.

The music played from a portable tape recorder set on a stool by a neighbour's fence and went for about half an hour before repeating itself.

Tony filmed it but try as I might I cannot load it to Blogger, so I found this on YouTube so you can get the idea. 

I'll leave yo tonight with another Aussie Christmas card.

Cheers.