Putting up holiday lighting in December is a time-honored tradition that can range from a few strings of white lights to brighten up the house front from the street, to complex, professional designs aimed to win contests and which are often visible from low-earth orbit.
Here in Los Angeles, light decorations have a special function: we don’t get snow here during December, and taking trips to the beach on Christmas Day isn’t unheard of. Without the natural decoration of snow, putting up outdoor holiday lights is a way to make our streets look more festive and more like a place that does have snow. It’s a great bargain: that holiday touch without all that cold and having to shovel the driveway each morning.
However, no matter how much lighting you plan on putting up for your house to brighten the season, we urge you to take safety precautions to avoid problems like shorting out your electrical system, creating tripping hazards, or triggering an electrical fire. The movie Christmas Vacation may be comic exaggeration—but not by that much.
Wow, it’s finally cooled down here in Southern California. There was a week there in October when the temperatures were rising above 100°F. We hope your air conditioner was able to keep your home cooled down during this rough pre-Halloween heat wave—and if you did have troubles, we hoped you contacted us to have them fixed.