Working Class areas and the annual race to get the tacky Christmas lights up first.

steddyeddy · 25-11-2014 2:55pm

Lapin wrote: »

Something I've noticed in recent years is an apparent race between the occupants of a number of houses in a council estate near me to don their homes with the most gaudy over the top Christmas lights, and the determination by some of the residents to get theirs up before the neighbours.

Two houses in particular have had theirs up for almost a fortnight now.

And each year they seem to get more and more outlandish and ostentatious with larger then scale figures of Santa Claus lit up at the chimney to be seen for miles around and further lights now festooned around the garden and every available space on the walls of the house.

I don't have a problem with anyone tarting up their houses for the festive season. It has long since been accepted as the most tasteless time of the year, but I'd prefer if they were confined to the festive season rather than two months of the year.

Of course I acknowledge that there are middle class people who turn their residences into garish winter wonderlands every year too. I don't know where they get the time. But the phenonmen of displaying the most jaunty glittery tat annually, and the quest to get it up first every year is overwhelmingly a feature of working class council estates urban areas.

Its not as if there are prizes for doing so like there are for the Tidy Towns competition during the Summer, (although that doesn't seem to be an insentive in many of these estates anyway.)

The first electricity of the new year for families with such displays must be eye watering, but that's none of my business. I do wonder though it this race to get the lights up earlier every year adds increased pressure to fire crews around the country as the potential for fire risk must be a lot higher with so many lights and electrical sockets in use.

Middle and working class? Please bring your thinking into this century and we can have a level debate.

Fat Christy · 25-11-2014 3:04pm

Gowlasauras Rex wrote: »

I have no proof you have lady features. I was just trying to cheer you up because obviously you are self conscious about your eyes if you only go out in the night wearing sunglasses.

You on the rag or something?

Yeah, bleeding all over the shop so I am.

I'll PM you some pics, I'm sound like that.

Lapin · 25-11-2014 3:04pm

Makayla Some Bride wrote: »

But it's not! This is where you went wrong. You probably need to get out more.

It is. I didn't go wrong anywhere. I opened a post based on my own observations. I'm out everyday.

Summer wind wrote: »

I love driving around at Christmas with the children in the car looking at the lights. They love it too and some of the houses collect money for charity so that's good too. Why not have a bit of colour and sparkle in our lives.

Do you tell your kids Christmas lasts from early November to the second week in January?

anncoates wrote: »

The best light display I've ever seen is in Ballyfermot.. The house and even the garden is bedecked.

I've often swung by there to have a look even though it's out of my way.

If they have kids, they have won Christmas

Again, its not Christmas.

Magico Gonzalez wrote: »

What harm, if they like it, let them get on with it.

Why not just have Christmas lights up all year round then?

ireland.man wrote: »

I hate these threads. Young middle-class people (or the ones who aspire to be) post about how they hate some signifiers of 'working-class culture' (certain clothes, pyjamas in public, now christmas lights). The poster looks like a narrow-minded tool lacking in self-awareness and doesn't realise he's just using a piece of culture to vent his dislike for a whole group of people. Then a few posts later you have people fighting about and focusing on welfare fraud, disability and those lazy bast*rds we're all paying just to sleep all day and watch telly, reinforcing the OPs prejudices.

Can you please explain how drew this assumption from my opening post?

I never mentioned welfare fraud or disabilities. You are making accusations there based on what you want to believe rather than anything I actually said.

steddyeddy wrote: »

Middle and working class? Please bring your thinking into this century and we can have a level debate.

Both terms are widely in use today.

The Moldy Gowl · 25-11-2014 3:12pm

Fat Christy wrote: »

Yeah, bleeding all over the shop so I am.

I'll PM you some pics, I'm sound like that.

Already one step ahead of you. Have your own thread ready and waiting. Be the woman you were meant to be.

Generic Dreadhead · 25-11-2014 3:14pm

Gowlasauras Rex wrote: »

Already one step ahead of you. Have your own thread ready and waiting. Be the woman you were meant to be.

With the amount of bleeding going on right now she's more boat than woman

Fat Christy · 25-11-2014 3:19pm

Gowlasauras Rex wrote: »

Already one step ahead of you. Have your own thread ready and waiting. Be the woman you were meant to be.

No.

TheLastMohican · 25-11-2014 4:33pm

Cormac...
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Fat Christy
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Are ye twins? Christmas Twins?

Fat Christy · 25-11-2014 4:34pm

TheLastMohican wrote: »

Cormac...
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Fat Christy
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Join Date: Jun 2014
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Are ye twins? Christmas Twins?

No we're lovers, dontcha know?

TheLastMohican · 25-11-2014 4:40pm

Fat Christy wrote: »

No we're lovers, dontcha know?

Like an incestual geminial Castor and Pollox? Hey, this thread has been stretched enough with side topics so please don't bring sex into it.

eviltwin · 25-11-2014 4:40pm

Lapin wrote: »

Something I've noticed in recent years is an apparent race between the occupants of a number of houses in a council estate near me to don their homes with the most gaudy over the top Christmas lights, and the determination by some of the residents to get theirs up before the neighbours.

Two houses in particular have had theirs up for almost a fortnight now.

And each year they seem to get more and more outlandish and ostentatious with larger then scale figures of Santa Claus lit up at the chimney to be seen for miles around and further lights now festooned around the garden and every available space on the walls of the house.

I don't have a problem with anyone tarting up their houses for the festive season. It has long since been accepted as the most tasteless time of the year, but I'd prefer if they were confined to the festive season rather than two months of the year.

Of course I acknowledge that there are middle class people who turn their residences into garish winter wonderlands every year too. I don't know where they get the time. But the phenonmen of displaying the most jaunty glittery tat annually, and the quest to get it up first every year is overwhelmingly a feature of working class council estates urban areas.

Its not as if there are prizes for doing so like there are for the Tidy Towns competition during the Summer, (although that doesn't seem to be an insentive in many of these estates anyway.)

The first electricity of the new year for families with such displays must be eye watering, but that's none of my business. I do wonder though it this race to get the lights up earlier every year adds increased pressure to fire crews around the country as the potential for fire risk must be a lot higher with so many lights and electrical sockets in use.

I live in an area like that. My neighbours either side have their decorations up at least a week. Mine will go up mid December. So what though, I'm not going to draw conclusions from that. Maybe it cheers them up or perhaps they do it for the children. It doesn't indicate anything about the kind of people they are. We may live in a less affluent area but we aren't lesser people because of that.

Littlekittylou · 25-11-2014 4:48pm

I don't like snobs.

Lapin · 25-11-2014 4:50pm

eviltwin wrote: »

I live in an area like that. My neighbours either side have their decorations up at least a week. Mine will go up mid December. So what though, I'm not going to draw conclusions from that. Maybe it cheers them up or perhaps they do it for the children. It doesn't indicate anything about the kind of people they are. We may live in a less affluent area but we aren't lesser people because of that.

Who said it indicates anything, or suggested anyone was a lessor person for it?

I certainly didn't.

Littlekittylou · 25-11-2014 5:04pm

Lapin wrote: »

Who said it indicates anything, or suggested anyone was a lessor person for it?

I certainly didn't.

Yes you did.

Drakares · 25-11-2014 5:05pm

Lapin wrote: »

the festive season. It has long since been accepted as the most tasteless time of the year

Has it? You sound like mad craic altogether. I'd say your colleagues love you at the Christmas party.

Fat Christy · 25-11-2014 5:05pm

TheLastMohican wrote: »

Like an incestual geminial Castor and Pollox? Hey, this thread has been stretched enough with side topics so please don't bring sex into it.

No, not like that sicko! And we're waiting for marriage you filthbag.

eviltwin · 25-11-2014 5:18pm

Lapin wrote: »

Who said it indicates anything, or suggested anyone was a lessor person for it?

I certainly didn't.

Oh you drew plenty of aspersions on the people concerned. It's only lights, it's not that big a deal.

Littlekittylou · 25-11-2014 5:32pm

It's ridiculous rag on the 'working class' for anything and everything under the sun even something as stupid as lights. Years ago it was tracksuits or gold hoop earrings. It just exposes the nasty person doing it for who they are.

There are plenty of wealthy people I like there are plenty of poor people I like. I don't like them out of duty or obligation to like working class people I don't like them because of social status in the case of the wealthier.

People who rag on about those in less well off areas need to join the que. Guess what they KNOW you despise them. They are used to it. You can rest assured without the sly digs etc. They get it.

Anyone who believes class warfare is about the envy of the poor towards the rich has it backwards; it's about the rich despising the poor so much that they actively work to worsen their condition, all the while insisting that it's all poor people's fault.

You needn't worry that people from Tallaght might think you approve of them in anyway. They know the feelings and suspicions that people like you have of them. Even if you don't admit them outright.

I've just never seen such a frivolous stupid way of expressing that as giving out about Christmas lights.

It's so petty.

TheBeardedLady · 25-11-2014 5:47pm

I think it's absolutely brilliant. One of my fave things about going home. They clearly have a sense of humour going by the lengths that some families go to. Love the fact that grown adults go to that much trouble to get into the spirit of it all.

My stepmam, sister and me do a trip round north Dublin in the car every year, including parts of my own town (plenty of "posh" areas too) to have a gawk and a chuckle. Always gets me in the mood for xmas.

Mick55 · 25-11-2014 6:20pm

Lapin wrote: »

The first electricity of the new year for families with such displays must be eye watering, but that's none of my business.

Fr_Dougal · 25-11-2014 6:23pm

I think it's great to see houses making the effort, kids must be really happy with them. I know when I were a lad, I used to love the Xmas lights.

Lapin · 25-11-2014 8:28pm

Littlekittylou wrote: »

There are plenty of wealthy people I like there are plenty of poor people I like. I don't like them out of duty or obligation to like working class people I don't like them because of social status in the case of the wealthier.....

Same here.

And nowhere - nowhere on this thread or any other do I cast aspersions on anyone based on their background.

I'm simply curious as to why such ostentatious displays are more prevalent in such areas as opposed to others.

And before anyone else begins frothing at the mouth in a charge of indignation against things I didn't say, have a read of this -

"A number of brief observations were made throughout the evening’s engagement with the Christmas illuminated landscape. Firstly, there did seem to be a general correlation between the displays and socio-economic areas, with working-class and lower-middle class areas having a greater number of very elaborate displays, compared to the more sombre illuminations of middle-class areas. In fact, many middle-class areas were devoid of exterior lights...."

It seems I'm not alone.

Source

Galwayguy35 · 25-11-2014 8:33pm

Lapin wrote: »

Something I've noticed in recent years is an apparent race between the occupants of a number of houses in a council estate near me to don their homes with the most gaudy over the top Christmas lights, and the determination by some of the residents to get theirs up before the neighbours.

Two houses in particular have had theirs up for almost a fortnight now.

And each year they seem to get more and more outlandish and ostentatious with larger then scale figures of Santa Claus lit up at the chimney to be seen for miles around and further lights now festooned around the garden and every available space on the walls of the house.

I don't have a problem with anyone tarting up their houses for the festive season. It has long since been accepted as the most tasteless time of the year, but I'd prefer if they were confined to the festive season rather than two months of the year.

Of course I acknowledge that there are middle class people who turn their residences into garish winter wonderlands every year too. I don't know where they get the time. But the phenonmen of displaying the most jaunty glittery tat annually, and the quest to get it up first every year is overwhelmingly a feature of working class council estates urban areas.

Its not as if there are prizes for doing so like there are for the Tidy Towns competition during the Summer, (although that doesn't seem to be an insentive in many of these estates anyway.)

The first electricity of the new year for families with such displays must be eye watering, but that's none of my business. I do wonder though it this race to get the lights up earlier every year adds increased pressure to fire crews around the country as the potential for fire risk must be a lot higher with so many lights and electrical sockets in use.

Where is it, I'll drive past and see if I agree with you.

Lapin · 25-11-2014 8:36pm

PM sent ^^

catallus · 25-11-2014 8:48pm

Maybe all these garish Christmas lights on houses are an indication of the moral malaise which has struck the modern Irish psyche.

We cast glittering trifles upon our walls to conceal the turgid desolation within our souls.

We have truly lost our way when we concede spiritual fulfillment for the gaudy sparkling glow of dancing elves.

moc moc a moc · 25-11-2014 8:51pm

Littlekittylou wrote: »

I don't like snobs.

We don't care what riff-raff like you think.

Laura Palmer · 25-11-2014 8:58pm

Karl Stein wrote: »

There's a couple of working people's dwellings near the entrance to the manor that are adorned with the very 'ilumitatty' you've highlighted. I used to have my driver stop at the gatekeeper's lodge so that I could leave stale bread and tins of peas on their tiny little lawns to help them through this time of year.

One year one of the uncouth brutes that resides within chased the Benz and tossed a tin of peas right through the rear windscreen! No more help from me!

:eek:
Such impudence! Forward me their details post haste, that I might send my man around to administer the thrashing of a lifetime to the savage! :mad:

looking_around · 25-11-2014 9:14pm

I think xmas lights should be banned for environmental reasons. I'm all for the decorating, but I never use lights.

KungPao · 25-11-2014 9:23pm

My neighbours, of rather meager means, have multi-coloured fairy lights about their front door.

How frightfully tasteless.

They doubtlessly purchased the hideous twinkling illuminations from one of those Germanic discount merchants I have encountered.

swimming in a sea · 25-11-2014 9:47pm

Senor Fancy Pants wrote: »

Some motherfcukers just like winding people up too, it did cross my mind to plug in 500 sets of big flashy things and just fcuk them on top of the house and in the garden in no particular order, just to annoy my neighbour who waves at me everyday.

That will show the cnut to be nice to me.

Would your neighbour be Ned Flanders by any chance?

"hidey ho neighborino"

eviltwin · 25-11-2014 9:56pm

Lapin wrote: »

Same here.

And nowhere - nowhere on this thread or any other do I cast aspersions on anyone based on their background.

I'm simply curious as to why such ostentatious displays are more prevalent in such areas as opposed to others.

And before anyone else begins frothing at the mouth in a charge of indignation against things I didn't say, have a read of this -

"A number of brief observations were made throughout the evening’s engagement with the Christmas illuminated landscape. Firstly, there did seem to be a general correlation between the displays and socio-economic areas, with working-class and lower-middle class areas having a greater number of very elaborate displays, compared to the more sombre illuminations of middle-class areas. In fact, many middle-class areas were devoid of exterior lights...."

It seems I'm not alone.

Source

Maybe it's a simple way of cheering themselves up during the miserable dark evenings. I can cheer myself up with a night out, a trip to the cinema or can take my kids bowling or for pizza. I have things that keep me going, keep me sane. I notice around my estate the first houses with lights up tend to be those unable to afford these things. Having something on the house might give them a bit of joy. There is something soothing and cosy about Christmas lights. If it makes them happy what harm?

Working Class areas and the annual race to get the tacky Christmas lights up first.

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