We always had the best Christmas display on the block - in our neighborhood, really; some folks even said in the whole town, but we tried not to be prideful about it. Every year I looked forward to it, and every year we topped the year before. Until dad died in mid-December with the whole house set up, blinking and shining like the second coming. We could never bring ourselves to take it down, and it stayed there year-round until we sold the house a decade later, decked out for Christmas in August. As far as I know it still is.