How do I start to explain to DS that we are NOT having lights on the front of the house because it is very bad taste?

[PeaMcLean]

He's asked three times already.

What is the point of tasteful christmas lights?

Bling it up if you're having them at all

Oh god social conscience running amok now. So now I have to buy lights to support local jobs? Do farmers markets sell organic lighting?

Isn't there a big lighting com[any in Cwmbran? - guilt, guilt guilt

LOL- no you're OK, they make DJ stuff

I'd do it, but with an agreement tahts it a once only thing for him to enjoy this Christmas, and next year it is your turn to choose.

orrr go on

its CHRISTMASSSSS!!!!

tell him that's why poor people get rubbish presents, becuase their mums and dads have spent on xmas lights.

I love the house in Christmas Vacation.We moved to this house last year and last christmas we werehalf way through renovating and I had just given birth so we just about got a tree up

This year I am going to make up for it and I can just see the snooty looks from the snobs around here

ha!

You're sour.

I love external lights!

The electricity bill will equate to the money you would have spent on his Christmas presents. His choice.

avoid inflatables and things on the roof and you can be as ironically tacky as your son likes without losing boden points.

Peachy, I'm just glad DH didn't get that job at the party stuff factory - it would have been obligatory to have party hats for every occasion! [grumpy emoticon] How are those lovely boys of yours? I was very taken with No3 especially.

Kerry, see I think that's character forming. We were the only house in the street to not have flags and bunting for the Silver Jubilee. Painful at the time but am now kind of impressed my parents had such strong opinions.

lol me too

My neighbours do all the christmas lights needed for our street

v. socially minded of them.

I must be old. Nobody had external lights when I was little. I thought it was something that had started a few years back cos of people seeing it on films or maybe we were just a bit backward where i grew up!

Maybe you could suggest an inflatable nativity scene to your son with an extra large Jesus by his window. That probably wouldn't be as popular as an inflatable Santa.

They're fine Pea, ds3 doing well and quite verbal now.

So glad a lighting display would be impossible here (can you imagine the barely controlled wrath of the residents committee? LOL), but we are putting a lit tree on the kitchen roof- partly so kids can see it but now-crawling ds4 not eat it (), but also to annoy the miserable bat next door- God forbid it might make her smile!

Local bylaw forbids any sort of tacky lights outside our house honest

oh dont be mean!!! let the poor lad have some lights. like the others have said it doesnt have to be anything really tacky, just a string of lights round the gutter or something. thankfully my roof is too high for lights as i live in a 3 storey house (dont like heights so wouldnt be caught dead up there) but even i will have lights round my living room window. it is christmas after all.....

Make a huuuuuuge giant papier mache snowman out of old newspaper and tether it down well to your lawn. A nice mix of recycling and keeping your ds happy!

Sell him on the environmental impact -- at 7 he may be quite big on that. Lights is obvious (just don't mention the existence of solar Christmas lights) and snow paint probably contains all sorts of noxious chemicals that are bad for local wildlife, or something.

Awww christmas lights outside can look lovely. My mum has some on her tree and I think they look stunning. I agree they can look tacky and most people think of them as common but they can be done very tastefully and actually look really nice.

If you do decide to get some use the LED bulb light as they look a lot less tacky!

Social conscience be damned - he's never too young to learn about taste and style!!

Put just one lot of white lights around a single tree and explain that the classier the lights, the more likely Santa is to drop decent presents down the chimney!!! (even bigger )

Peachy - festive opens shortly! Go forth and shop!

No such thing as bad taste at Christmas. I finally hit upon hugely reduced lights last year, and now we are lit up (excuse the pun) like a Christmas tree. And I got the 7ft inflated snowman for the garden too.......

Kerrymum, last year Atlantic Homecare reduced all outdoor lights 5 days before Christmas.