Lighting up dark nights
Families putting up Christmas lights early to offset the gloom
In a typical year, Julie Zimmer’s family would turn on their Christmas lights after Thanksgiving. But in the wake of a contentious presidential election, in the middle of a pandemic that appears to be ballooning by the day, the Zimmer household in Crofton, Md., started hanging their Christmas lights earlier than ever: a week before Halloween.
“They’re just - they bring happiness,” said Zimmer, 45. “They’re bright on a dark night.”
Darkness comes early these days. The coronavirus pandemic has upended the holiday season in the Washington region. Cases are surging across the nation. Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia have announced tighter pandemic-related restrictions. Annual holiday rituals, such as the National Christmas Tree Lighting and the National Zoo’s ZooLights display, have been altered or outright canceled. Amid all this, families are digging into their storage containers earlier than ever to follow through on one part of the holidays they can control: turning on the Christmas lights.
“It’s been a hard year,”
said Zimmer, a lawyer for the federal government. “We’ll all have to do things to keep our spirits up, together.”
Once their decorating is done by the end of the week, the Zimmers’ front lawn will feature four reindeer, three snowmen and a light-up dog - but no inflatable decorations. Inflatables is where Zimmer draws the line. The family favors twinkling lights. They have multicolor bulbs to trim the frame of the house, warm white lights to wrap around the trunks of trees and icy white LED lights to stretch across the street to their neighbor’s yard.
“It just makes it look like a fabulous winter wonderland,” Zimmer said, adding that her husband, Justin, made sure the trash trucks can still pass under the lights dangling over the street.
A short car ride away, down Urby Drive in Crofton, Chris Underwood lives on a street that goes big and bright for the holiday season. The families in six neighboring homes have one connecting rope of lights between all of them. Underwood, 41, an independent real estate investor, said his family has been coordinating with the other households for three years now.
“At least some things are remaining steady out there in the world,” Underwood said. “Like, our six houses decorating for Christmas, you know?”
The coronavirus pandemic has hit the nation’s small businesses hard this year, but companies that sell holiday decorations are seeing an early uptick in demand. At the Virginia Christmas Lighting and Decor Co., which hangs holiday lights at people’s homes, co- owner Michael Sfreddo said he received his first order in August and started installing lights in September. Normally, he doesn’t start hanging lights until the end of October.
Sfreddo and Jeff Sears, a manager for Outdoor Lighting Perspectives in D.C., said their business has already doubled from last year and they’ve hired numerous temporary employees. Sfreddo said his company has received four times the number of inquiries it had last year.
“My body right now feels like it usually feels on Christmas Eve when I had just been working nonstop for two months,” Sfreddo, 48, said last week. “I’m already to the point where I want to collapse, and it’s only been November.”