OK, it’s Dec. 1. Can we talk about Christmas yet? Or “the holiday season” or whatever won’t offend. Your choice.
However you want to describe it, I’m talking about pretty light displays and how easy it is now to find them.
Because, they’reeeee baaaaaaack! The Crazy House Lights From Duncan to Ladysmith Facebook page and the www.crazyhouselights.com website have returned for another holiday season, this year with a new administrator doing the grunt work.
The whole purpose of the sites is to curate information about decorated homes within the region and then spread the joy out to those who want to go for a drive and have a look.
You can print out a map from the website, pile the kids in the car, and delight in seeking out what my son calls “candy lights.”
(We have a string of candy cane lights and the term just stuck. It works.)
Our main candy light drives usually include getting the kids in their pajamas (bad decision…keep reading), then putting them in the car with blankets and hot chocolate and some type of cookie or donut or mini candy cane that inevitability leaves us wishing we hadn’t given them sugary treats so late in the evening.
We crank the Christmas tunes and head out to a pair of displays on Powell Street and one on Trillium Terrace for sure. We also tend to visit a pair of houses on Herons Place. Beyond that, how far we venture depends how long it took us to get out of the house in the first place. And, it depends on the map, which this season includes homes in Ladysmith. It might be time to put together a dinner for the car. On second thought, I wonder if one of these unsuspecting homeowners would mind if we picnicked in the middle of their light display?
In all honesty, it’s not those purposeful light-seeking drives that I think my family enjoys most. At least those aren’t the ones I like best.
It’s the routine trips around town on the way home from daycare and on the way to Grandma’s for dinner and so on that I cherish. When we see lights on those trips it, for some reason only truly known by small children, is always a major surprise and source of excitement.
There’s something extra special about taking the long way home from the grocery store just to see a house with pretty lights on a random Thursday evening.
Or maybe I just like those short drives best because I don’t end up having to bathe and re-dress two small children and wash a full load of hot chocolate-stained pajamas and blankets and sticky, crumb-filled car seats after those trips.
Maybe I’ll cover the entire backseat in a shower curtain this year? I wonder if that’d work…
Either way, we love this time of year.
If you’ve got a house to add to the list, visit The Crazy House Lights From Duncan to Ladysmith Facebook page or www.crazyhouselights.com to let them know. It sounds like there also might be a contest this year…
sarah.simpson@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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