A less kind person might say that I’m rather lazy. I must admit that I’m always searching for the way that’s less trouble, no-so-involved, easier, etc. Efficient.

Years ago, in our other house, I created a large swag made of pine and holly (the artificial kind), and hung it across the top of the large doorway between our living and dining rooms. I added a string of small, white Christmas lights. Over the years, I purchased clear, plastic ornaments meant to be attached to those lights. It’s lovely. One year, I found an apparatus designed to be plugged in to an outlet, and the other end was a metal snowflake. You touched the snowflake to turn those little lights on, and you touched it again to turn the lights off. It was handy, even though the plug, in that house, was easy to reach.

Now, in the house where we currently live, the swag goes around the large windows at the front of the house. The Christmas tree sits in front of that window. The only plug on that wall is right behind the tree, and therefore difficult to reach. The you-only-have-to-touch-it snowflake is extra handy now, and I touch it every morning to turn on the lights. Easy-peasy. And, there’s a step-on button at the bottom of the Christmas tree that turns on those lights. Efficient.

There are also two candle lights in the windows. We are careful, as we prepare to decorate each year, to plug those in at exactly six o-clock, p.m. They come on, the stay lit for 6 hours, then they go off. And, for the rest of the season, that’s the routine for them. On at six. Off at midnight. Efficient.

For all the years we lived in the other house, we never did any outdoor decorating. When we moved, I began to consider it. The next-door neighbors particularly loved Halloween. They also put up stuff for Christmas. Some others did, too. Not tons and tons of lights and stuff, but enough to make the street look merry in the evenings. I wanted to do some decorating, but, remember, I’m, um, efficient. I didn’t want strings of lights that had to be put up on the roof, unplugged and replugged each evening and morning, and then removed again in January. We don’t have space for those lit metal figures that would have to be stored for eleven months of the year. And I just didn’t want to try to tackle those large, inflatable figures. I found the answer at Target. Solar lights. Seemed perfect for the person who is, um, efficient.

I bought some.

They have these little solar collectors, which must get lots of sunlight during the day. Then, the lights come on at dark, and shine for several hours. They lose their power at some point in the night. Then, you hope, they gather up enough sun for the next night. One set of our lights are hung on a pine swag across the wrought iron rail along the porch. They are working fine. The lights (here on the right-hand side) are on a mesh sort of arrangement, and they have not worked at all this year. I know it’s not a lack of sunlight, as the two solar collectors are right next to each other, as you can see (over there on the left-hand-side).

So, the mesh-set ones are out. I found some snowflake-shaped ones and ordered them. They just arrived today (Thursday), and are, therefore, outside, powering themselves up. I also bought a plain set for the holly hedge across the front of the house. I’ll have to let you know next time how everything’s working.

Oh, ’tis the season!

Here, on the left, is what the railing swag looks like. This is, of course, a flash photo, since I didn’t think about it during the daylight hours.

On the right, you can just barely see the little solar lights on the swag. They look brighter if you’re actually walking or driving by. And, I don’t really know how long each evening the lights stay on. I’ve gone to bed long before they use themselves up. But, you can see in the photo the two candle lights in the window, some of the lights from the tree, and at the top and down the side, the lights from the swag that easily turns on with the touch of a snowflake.

The only drawback, and it happened for a couple of nights earlier in the week, is that it only takes a couple of cloudy days to completely shut down the solar lights. So I guess it’s not a great choice for places in the northern reaches of our country, where the days are so much shorter. And, not so good in places where it’s overcast for much of the winter months. But, for us here in Texas, there’s usually lots more sunny days that cloudy ones. Perfect for someone who’s, you know, not exactly lazy, but … efficient.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17 (Christian Standard Bible)

Every gift^[a] God freely gives us is good and perfect,^[b] streaming down from the Father of lights,^[c] who shines from the heavens with no hidden shadow or darkness^[d] and is never subject to change.

James 1:17 (The Passion Translation)

Beautiful lights. Just one part of a beautiful Christmas celebration.