VIRTUAL ADVENT TOUR: The Lights of My Town

Welcome to December 7th of the Advent Tour, and welcome to PEI! I'm so pleased that spritewrites has decided to host and organize the tour again this year. There is still time to join in and add a Holiday post if you want to share some of your traditions. Even if all the days get picked, more than one post per day is even more fun!

I love driving around and seeing the Christmas lights up and decorating the streets. The pictures do not do justice to how wonderful they look, but I tried!

Downtown Charlottetown has been decorated for a long number of years with large lighted figures. Here is our wonderful Confederation Center of the Arts lit up. Confed Center is home to my library, and also the Anne of Green Gables musical, plus the art gallery and is where we host our high school prom. CCoA is also next door to Province House, the birthplace of Canada. It's a wonderful spot to walk around, inside and out and we are lucky to have such a nationally important structure in our little city. I snapped this picture around 5 pm, and it felt darker outside than this picture suggests.

Next, I took a walk around my neighbourhood. Usually, nearly all the houses are decorated and lit up, but we have already had snow, and it seems like it is sticking around. Some years we don't even have snow for Christmas. The stormy weather has probably put a crimp in the plans of some people. It is still just the first week of December.

It was a lovely night to walk around the block and admire the neighbours' houses. Lots of houses are simply decorated: a wreath, a garland, and nice floodlight to highlight the front.




I am often drawn to houses with a simple white light theme. December gets so dark so early, especially after the time change, so the lights, which come on around 5 or 6 pm, brighten up the dark evenings, giving some hope of brighter days coming.




This is new! I saw two houses on my walk with this overall multi-coloured lighting. The lights are moving which adds an extra dimension. The snowman is a bit droopy, but he picked up his head soon after.




I love this house and how they let the house be the star of the show. Each window, including the side of the house and the garage, have a set of candle-lights. The large Snowman, Carolers, and Santa have been but out for as long as I can remember. Would they have to go around and turn on all the candles individually? Dedicated!




Some houses already have their tree up and lit. These bushes are lit with coloured lights and more window candles. Too much snow for this early in December.




Here is our house! A few bushes, a set of white light branches, and the floodlights.  I think my door is too dark for the pine swag to show up very well.

This is our third Christmas in the house. The first year, my husband got the lights all set up but couldn't figure out how to get them to light up, as the outside front plug/outlet didn't seem to work. It took a while, and my youngest who had investigated all the light switches in the house, to discover the switch in the front closet which controls the outside lights. Genius! We can turn the lights on and off with out going outside.

Thanks for stopping by again this year. Having the Virtual Advent Tour is now a tradition at Christmas for me. Here's my past posts:

In 2015, I shared my Christmas decorations in our new home

In 2014, there was no tour

In 2013, I shared a Christmas series of novellas by Anne Perry that I listened in audio

In 2012, I posted some favourite Christmas mystery  books

In 2011, I posted a 'recipe' for fruitcake that my grandmother had given me.

In 2010, I took a humorous look at some local events on Prince Edward Island.
In 2009, we played 'guess the carol'
In 2008, I played a game of 'guess the movie', and my favorite Christmas picture ever.
In 2007, it was the original 'guess the carol' game, with your vocabulary tested, and my whipped shortbread cookie recipe.