Cool decorations on anybody’s night rides?

[Ryan Frahm]

There are a ton of places around me that are really done up! Not sure if anyone has interest in posting the cool places you ride past or not. Or if I’m the only one that seems to always be out past dark at this time of year!

[Peter Adler]

I'm out at night all the time, all year round.

The "kick out the jams" holiday decoration thing is largely regional, I suspect. It's certainly idiosyncratic; some people are just really into it. There's one new-ish neighbor on my block who's going all in this year; the elaborate outdoor Halloween decorations (often done by other neighbors with small kids) came down the first week of November, and the comparably elaborate Christmas decorations (8-foot illuminated snowman, etc.) have been going up ever since.

There used to be an elderly man in the El Cerrito hills who went really overboard every year. He was an immigrant from India, and he just got jazzed about the decorations - all kinds of lights and whatnot. His December electrical bills must have been huge. He died a few years back, just short of 100.

Super-duper decorating isn't really a thing in my immediate area (Berkeley/North Oakland). There are some outliers, but it's mostly in the more suburban areas. Every December 23, I make a habit of biking out to the East End of Alameda, an island city offshore of Oakland that used to have a naval air station at the West End. There's one block of Thompson Street in the East End that goes all out; there's a de facto community policy in the neighborhood that you participate in the decorating, or begone. People come from all around the Bay Area to see it, or at least they did before the pandemic; the neighbors hire a Santa Claus to sit on the traffic island (centered on a gargantuan evergreen - redwood? - that was probably there before the neighborhood was subdivided), and the kids line up. During the last few weeks before Christmas, it's wall-to-wall with cars and pedestrians. The adjoining blocks are often more decorated than normal; I cruise back through the residential streets as I head back for the bridge to Oakland, and 7-8 extravagantly lit houses per block is typical. It's just not every house, as it is on Thompson.

Or at least that's the way it was before COVID. I haven't been out there since before the pandemic; there have been torrential rains every year since when I tried to go out, and 18 miles on city streets with tire-puncturing road crap on them is a long way to go in a rainstorm. I'll try to get out there again this year, and I'll post back.

On December 24, there's a tradition in a nearby North Berkeley neighborhood (basically North Berkeley/Northbrae, for the locals; Sacramento/Rose/Grant/Delaware). Every Christmas Eve, they do street candles: White paper bags with candles in them set up along the curbs, with the candles lit at dusk. Neighbors show up at the distribution house and grab up the lights, then put them out on the curbs near their own house and light them at sundown. It's turned into a lot of little neighborhood block parties/open houses; I've stopped by houses where people were playing music, handing out cookies, mulled wine/cider, cocoa etc. Cruising through these streets has uncovered little pockets of elaborately lit houses, but usually no more concentrated than 3-4 per block.

Peter Adler

Berkeley, California/USA

[Patrick Moore]

https://youtu.be/2HyIXzh_8FA?t=137

I live in a little infill development with small but modestly upscale houses (many "semi-detached," as is mine) tucked away against the cottonwood bosque, and most of our residents are old farts like me, tho' in the last year or 18 months a couple of younger families with small children have moved in -- so nice to hear the random yells and screams of young children at play. So at most what we see are luminarias, real or electric-ersatz:

Usual, electric:

Real:

[Benjamin L. Kelley]

One of the suburbs in KC has long had a light drive thru display that is put on by the local power company.

About a decade ago the local bike advocacy group started an organized ride that happens before the display officially opens.

Unfortunately this year it did not happen due to weather, and it's not the sort of thing they have wiggle room to reschedule. Bummer.

I did ride it last year and boy is it a thing on a bike. Wildly different than sitting in a car.  Everyone dresses up or decorates their bikes. Cyclists from all over the region come and do it.

Didn't take many pictures last year but here is me on my bregalad in the entrance tunnel attached.

and 2 links of .mov of the tunnel and the one time I did stop and shoot a video.

https://www.hippieben.com/ttlf2023/IMG_0864.mov

https://www.hippieben.com/ttlf2023/IMG_0870.mov

and a link to the site for the venue. https://www.makeyourdayhere.com/Event-Calendar/36th-Annual-Christmas-in-the-Park

--ben in KC

On Sun, Dec 3, 2023 at 9:07 PM Ryan Frahm <fra...@gmail.com> wrote:

There are a ton of places around me that are really done up! Not sure if anyone has interest in posting the cool places you ride past or not. Or if I’m the only one that seems to always be out past dark at this time of year!

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[st nick]

Lots of folks in the Dallas and surrounding suburbs decorate big time.

I plan on more night riding to look at some of them.

It's a good idea to be pretty lit up yourself (visually) when riding at night.

I did not see any space at this large house to add anything else.

I enjoy seeing these Christmas light extravaganzas but my mind starts to wander/wonder how much they spent on them plus how much their electric bill goes up for the weeks of the display.

But if that's their thing and they can afford it

 I do enjoy seeing them.

Enjoy the season and the riding.

Merry Christmas!

Paul in Dallas