A twist on the Midwest Christmas Overdo

Another night, another batch of Christmas lights

Midwest people deck the outdoor halls for Christmas.

Like, a lot.

As a nighttime dog-walker of many years, I live for the overdo. It breaks up the darkness, literally and figuratively.

I knew my Michigan neighborhood well. We had the people who light up the yard year-round, the people who have a puffy army, the people who have cut-out carolers, and the people who string lights so high up in their trees it defies logic.

This year, we moved out of Michigan, but not the Midwest. My Illinois neighborhood, however, had me worried.

Over-doers tend to overdo all fall, but decoration in our new neighborhood was tasteful and small. The Halloween décor was simple, even tame. Only one house went from property line to property line with puffy ghouls and purple lights, and I had to walk three miles to see it.

We live on the plains of Illinois, so the wind is a real puffy-snatching, cutout-busting, light-mangling force. Still, I was surprised when only one house flipped red-and-green after Halloween, a traditional starting point for my Michigan neighbors.

The week of Thanksgiving, not much had changed. There were a couple of tasteful turkeys, a few rotting pumpkins, but no Christmas lights. We returned to Michigan for Thanksgiving Day, where my old neighborhood was rocking full-out Christmas by Black Friday.

My hope was the new neighborhood would have done the same in my absence, but it was as dark as when we left it. There was one house blazing away, which happened to our neighbor.

Oddly, not the one with kids.

After unpacking the car, I walked the dog, hoping to find more hidden jewels, but no such luck. There was a guy with three gold-lit reindeer on the lawn, but their bows were orange, which may mean they were just deer.

My husband suggested Illinois folks were conservative decorators. I suggested they lacked the Midwest Spirit. Neither one of us was right.

These folks overdo, but it’s over time.

For example, one neighbor started with a single star in gold lights. The next night all the bushes were covered in gold lights. The next, red lightbulbs blazed in every outdoor fixture. Then, more gold lights dripped from the roof. Then, a fully lit sleigh. Then, more gold lights from the trees.

It just kept coming – gaudy and wonderful.

Reindeer guy? Slowly, over a week, there were rainbow lights on the eaves, then a 12-foot Nutcracker with eyes that glowed in the dark, then a fully lit holiday train. One night the wind derailed the train and upset the deer, making it appear as if the Nutcracker had gone on a holiday rampage.

It was terrifying and terrific.

Another neighbor started with a Santa cutout, then reindeer, penguins, a random runway of lights, a nativity cutout, and a spotlight. The spotlight projected the nativity’s shadow larger than life on the house. The effect wasn’t Mary and Joseph praying over Baby Jesus as much as two parents checking their cellphones while the baby slept next to a pack of penguins.

It tickles me every time I pass.

Each night the neighborhood gets sillier and brighter, a great twist on the Midwest Christmas Overdo that has been well worth the wait.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash