There's a song in the air, there's a star in the sky...and an 8-foot snow globe on my neighbor's lawn

A commercial for a new holiday movie gets me laughing every time. It's just a flash of a scene, but it hits close to my real-life experience: When the nighbors plug in their outdoor christmas lights, a couple is blinded by the nuclear-like bath of light as they lie in bed.

The annual drain of electricity has begun as the neighbors take on the task of covering every last square inch of exposed house and lawn (and probably pets, too) with lights. The air has barely seeped out of the giant inflated jack-o-lantern, but the bobbing Santa (who pops in and out of the chimney) is on the roof, along with his twin in his sleigh with Rudolph. Frosty and the taller-than-me snowglobe have taken up residence as well, and the flashing lights have begun to make their way around the house. Eventually, the house will, in all likelihood, be visible from space.

Now, I'm all for fun and whimsey, and darn it, it's their house. They can do whatever they want as long as they pay the electric bill and don't burn down the neighborhood. The whole secular/religious holiday argument aside, my biggest complaint is this: Does it have to be so...bright?

I love Christmas lights just as much as my five-year old, and I appreciate the fact that we don't have to turn on a single interior light on that side of the house from the beginning of November to the end of January, but there's a reason we live in the Bluegrass and not Dead Horse, Alaska, with its three months of solid daylight.

I guess there's worse things the neighbors could do. A friend of ours says the people who live near him wait outside so they can shoot at any foreign little men who might show up with a team of prime bucks and try to break into houses. It is deer season, you know.

Ah, well, I guess I could always take the Corey Hart approach and wear my sunglasses at night.

By the way, if you want to come visit, it's the dark spot next to the landing strip.