Christmas Light Etiquette

Brisbane is where I grew up. I love the people here, friendly, welcoming – sunny.

Christmas is my favourite time of year and now I have kids one of my favourite things to do at Christmas is to take them to visit the Christmas lights. We map it out as a family and it’s a wonderful night we all look forward to every year.

As editor of Brisbane Kids its our 15th year of doing Christmas lights.

The cost of putting up Christmas Lights

I have always been inspired by people who put up Christmas lights. All the manual effort, all the dollar expense on energy and for many of the bigger houses, the hours spent managing the time where people view the lights.

For one house we visited yearly, it was almost an acre of yard taken up and transformed into a winter wonderland (sadly they closed due to challenges discussed in this post. They were amazing.

Christmas lights are a free fun activity for families and an activity a whole family can enjoy together, even when you have a toddler and a teenager. To me, it also symbolises community – opening one’s home for inspection, being available, open and welcoming.

Who are these awesome light people anyway?

The first thing that was established upon visiting the houses with Christmas Lights was that all the homeowners had one thing in common. They had a desire to make people, children, and families happy. Their lights are designed to bring joy. In some cases, these wonderful people even used this experience to raise money for charities! WE LOVE THIS

So why on earth?

When our writers went to some homes, they discovered it wasn’t all candy canes and happy kids singing carols.

The Brisbane Kids team got to chatting with some of the residents AND they asked us if we would mind asking you (Brisbane)- no.. not YOU specifically- it’s ok.. just Brisbane in general for some common courtesy.

• Please do your toileting before leaving home. It’s not ok to urinate in their gardens.
• It’s not okay to drink alcohol in their front yard.
• Christmas lights are not code for “come party with us” all night long in our front yard and all over the road
• Respect their neighbours, dont park over driveways, and be prepared to park some distance away to make sure you can enjoy the Christmas Lights in a respectful way. 

Let’s just be reasonable

When you see Christmas Lights, the residents want you to be aware that people live in these streets. As importantly LOTS of people want to see the Christmas Lights so stopping in front of their homes for 5 minutes + in your car (in the middle of the road) while other cars bank back probably isn’t an ideal situation. Also please understand that these people sleep and THIS is not ok- Have a look at what one Brisbane family was sent!

Brisbane Kids believes

We believe in Christmas and if you are reading this, then you do too. So when you head off into the spirit of Christmas seeing Christmas Lights lend some thought to the people who make it possible and perhaps send some goodwill and cheer their way.

I think it might be nice if all Brisbane Kids followers say THANK YOU this year as we pass through and by the homes that bring such joy to children everywhere.