For some, Christmas decoration brings images of Christmas lights, a decked out Christmas tree and lavishly wrapped presents under the tree. For others, however, the term Christmas decoration stokes a fire of competition. When Christmas time rolls around, they are at the Christmas decoration store, looking for the biggest, brightest, most extravagant decorations. In their minds, they have on goal: Outdoing the neighbors.

Out Doing Neighbors

Living in a subdivision means that you have neighbors that you see every now and again. Usually, it’s whenever you’re leaving for or returning from work. However, some people have a need to outdo their neighbors, especially at Christmas time. You can see this if you drive around near Christmas time. You’ll see houses with hundreds of dollars in decorations, each house trying to outdo the other. Some suburbanites save up all year round just to be able to buy more Christmas decorations than their neighbors.

The trend makes for great Christmas decoration tours in your car around Christmas time. Whenever neighbors try to outdo each other in the Christmas decoration department, you can often see lines of cars cruising past the houses just to see what each homeowner has done this time.

The Christmas decorations these neighbors use get more and more extravagant each year. What used to be just lights have turned into entire spectacles. Now you have animated snow men and Santa Clauses. On some houses, you can see entire groups of reindeer on the roof with a mechanical Santa trying to get into the chimney. These Christmas decoration showcases are so big that they easily eat a large chunk into anyone’s energy budget. The homeowner may have outdone his or her neighbor but they have also spent a fortune.

Neighborhood Contests

For some, it’s worth it. Many neighborhoods hold a Christmas decoration contest. For some, a simple trophy passed to the winner that they get to brandish all year long is the reward they get for outdoing the other neighbors. Some get money, but most often it’s not near enough to cover what they’ve already spent. For most, however, the reward is just knowing they outdid the person who lives next to them.

Christmas decorations are a great way to get into the Christmas spirit. Whether you are just hanging up lights to spruce up your home or you want to outdo your neighbors, there are Christmas decorations out there for everyone.