Christmas Lights

The Northeast is ablaze for the season as residents display twinkling, blinking symbols of the holiday. Some blocks decorate in a cooperative effort, such as in the 6600 block of Jackson Street, where 37 of 38 twin houses are lit up. Some residents carry on longstanding family traditions, displaying Santa scenes or creches in their yards. Other residents simply drive around and enjoy the sights.

Christmas lights will shine in Conshohocken by Thanksgiving, thanks to an offer by the AMBUCS - the American Business Clubs - to install the strings of colorful bulbs in the business district. Conshohocken had faced a dreary holiday season after the Greater Conshohocken Chamber of Commerce voted over the summer to discontinue responsibility for maintenance and installation of Conshohocken's Christmas lights. At the time, chamber executive director Bob Behrman said it would be unfair for the chamber to take care of one borough's lights while other municipalities that now are chamber members handle their own Christmas decorations.

Longwood Gardens will turn on its annual holiday display today. Senior arborist Jim Dilworth this week gave a bunch of lighted grapes a final check. The theme of this year's extravaganza is "A Gardener's Christmas. "

Question: This is our first house, and there is a really nice tree in the front on which we strung Christmas lights this year. Can we keep those lights up all year, instead of having to string and unstring then annually? We like the effect, but the work is a big pain, especially when it's cold. We'd also like to get the lights to the top of the tree, but our ladder isn't long enough. Answer: You've touched a nerve here. Two years ago, I hung lights on the weeping cherry tree in front of our house for Christmas and left them up after the holiday.

Conshohocken Borough Council is looking for more than a stocking full of Christmas spirit because it thinks a business group has decided to play Scrooge. For as long as anyone can remember, the Conshohocken Chamber of Commerce financed and arranged the Christmas decorations and lighting along the Fayette Street business district. This year, what's now known as the Greater Conshohocken Chamber of Commerce has handed the responsibility to the borough. But Borough Council members are saying no thanks, thinking it is too expensive and an insurance liability to boot.

Harry Sheldon is busy helping take Christmas lights off the shrubbery at the home of fiancee Meg Haines of Mickleton. He had taken time off from his job at Haines Pork Store, which belongs to her father.

The new novel from Inquirer columnist Lisa Scottoline, "Don't Go" (St. Martin's Press), is in bookstores Tuesday. Excerpts continue Tuesday in Magazine and Wednesday in Style & Soul.   Chapter One Chloe woke up on the floor, her thoughts foggy. She must have fallen and knocked herself out when she hit the hardwood. She started to get up, but felt dizzy and eased back down. The kitchen was dark except for pinpoints of light on the coffeemaker, TV, and cable box, like a suburban constellation.

For David April, the improbable road from Fishtown to GQ Spain started with a run and ended with a beer. A Kenzinger, no doubt. And a toast. "To the professor!" "To the professor!" echoed the endorphined crowd Thursday night at the American Sardine Bar in Point Breeze. To the professor? Is this Gilligan's Island? A brainy fraternity? No, it is the Fishtown Beer Runners' weekly homage to the scholar - Professor Manuel J. Castillo of the School of Medicine, University of Granada, Spain - who supplied them with a rather happy, not to mention hoppy, organizing principle.

NEW ORLEANS - A Louisiana woman ran afoul of police when she gave her neighbors an unusual holiday greeting, hanging Christmas lights in the shape of a middle finger. Sarah Childs was in a dispute with some of her neighbors in Denham Springs, just east of Baton Rouge, so she decided to send a message with her decorations. Neighbors complained and police threatened to arrest her, so she and the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana sued the city. A judge ruled in her favor Thursday.

CHRISTMAS-LIGHTS RECALL Take care when taking down your Christmas lights. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has recalled light sets that it says may present a shock or electrocution hazard to people as they return them to storage. The miniature "string-to-string" Christmas lights, manufactured by Taiwan-based Toyo Industrial, were sold in sets of 35, 50, 70 and 100 and are imprinted "TOYO" or "TP-6" on the end of one of the connectors. Unplug them before removal, and call Toyo at 800-545-8330 between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. SMELL OF SUCCESS More and more men are on the scent of something.

The new novel from Inquirer columnist Lisa Scottoline, "Don't Go" (St. Martin's Press), is in bookstores Tuesday. Excerpts continue Tuesday in Magazine and Wednesday in Style & Soul.   Chapter One Chloe woke up on the floor, her thoughts foggy. She must have fallen and knocked herself out when she hit the hardwood. She started to get up, but felt dizzy and eased back down. The kitchen was dark except for pinpoints of light on the coffeemaker, TV, and cable box, like a suburban constellation.

DECEMBER was normal. We bought the kids' Christmas gifts and hid them safely away. We watched as our children searched every corner of the house. Then Christmas arrived, and our extended family gathered around our beautiful Christmas tree. We sang carols. We told stories. We exchanged gifts. Love was the order of the day. Unfortunately, Christmas lasted longer than expected, because it's almost Valentine's Day, and our Christmas tree is still up. I'm not sure how it came to this.

By Ellen Scolnic and Joyce Eisenberg We're Jewish. Our husbands are Jewish and our kids are Jewish. We've been Jewish for thousands of years. It's not news to us that we don't celebrate Christmas. We've never had a Christmas tree. Never cooked a holiday ham. Never strung the bushes outside our homes with colored lights. But that doesn't mean we don't enjoy yours. We love the trappings of Christmas. We are in the minority - among the 3 percent of Americans who celebrated Hanukkah.

NEW ORLEANS - A Louisiana woman ran afoul of police when she gave her neighbors an unusual holiday greeting, hanging Christmas lights in the shape of a middle finger. Sarah Childs was in a dispute with some of her neighbors in Denham Springs, just east of Baton Rouge, so she decided to send a message with her decorations. Neighbors complained and police threatened to arrest her, so she and the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana sued the city. A judge ruled in her favor Thursday.

For David April, the improbable road from Fishtown to GQ Spain started with a run and ended with a beer. A Kenzinger, no doubt. And a toast. "To the professor!" "To the professor!" echoed the endorphined crowd Thursday night at the American Sardine Bar in Point Breeze. To the professor? Is this Gilligan's Island? A brainy fraternity? No, it is the Fishtown Beer Runners' weekly homage to the scholar - Professor Manuel J. Castillo of the School of Medicine, University of Granada, Spain - who supplied them with a rather happy, not to mention hoppy, organizing principle.

THEY CAME to London as gymnasts. They're leaving as rock stars. On Wednesday, Gabby Douglas, Jordan Wieber, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Kyla Ross — aka the Fierce Five — got a glimpse of their futures. Kellogg's gave them a sneak peak of the Corn Flakes box that will sport their images. Procter & Gamble created an ad congratulating them. And, they discussed their 40-city gymnastics tour, which visits Philly's Wells Fargo Center on Nov. 9. Life is good for the girls who combined to win five medals, including three golds.

Repurpose your Christmas tree. Remove some of the lower limbs and stand the tree in a large flower pot filled with soil or sand. Place it outside where you can see it. Make bird treats by shaping several tablespoons of peanut butter into a ball and rolling it in bird seed. Put the balls into mesh bags left over from avocados or other fresh produce, tie with colorful ribbon and hang on the tree. You can try suet in place of peanut butter - or use both. You can also add dried cranberries and raisins to the seed mixture.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank - Tens of thousands of tourists and Christian pilgrims packed the West Bank town of Bethlehem for Christmas Eve celebrations Saturday, bringing warm holiday cheer to the traditional birthplace of Jesus on a raw, breezy and rainy night. With turnout at its highest in more than a decade, proud Palestinian officials said they were praying that the celebrations would bring them closer to their dream of independence. Bethlehem, like the rest of the West Bank, fell onto hard times after the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation broke out in late 2000.

In the darkest corner of the night, Only dreams illuminate their eyes, And they see all the colors that we cannot, And theirs' is the most beautiful Christmas on the block. By Chris Gibbons Our good friends host an annual Christmas Eve gathering in our Lafayette Hill neighborhood where, with an assortment of family, friends, and neighbors, we'll sit around an outdoor fire, reminisce about Christmases past, and sing along to Christmas songs playing on a boom box. Traditional songs by Nat King Cole, Brenda Lee, and Bing Crosby are perennial favorites, as well as classic originals by Elvis, the Carpenters, and the Beach Boys, and even more recent recordings by U2, Wham, and Mariah Carey.

I grew up about a mile from the Doylestown Station townhouse development where a battle over the color of Christmas lights is white-hot because some residents ran afoul of a homeowners' association ban on colored lights. Forget the Occupy movement. The real economic divide in this country is over the choice of holiday lighting. And it's time for even the 1 percent to embrace their roots. Years ago, inside our house on Mercer Avenue, we always decorated the tree with big, fat, colored lights.