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"When the holidays roll around, I&amp;#039;m always excited to see how many people have put up their Christmas lights. To me, that&amp;#039;s the signal that the season has begun.  My fondness for holiday displays stems from a much-loved family tradition. Around Christmas, all of us would pile in a car and drive to a nearby neighborhood in Detroit to look at all the outdoor decorations. Our favorite every year was a house that had a huge pine tree in the front yard covered with hundreds of liquor boxes. We used to speculate that the father was a liquor distributor and happened to have an excess of the gold- and silver-patterned boxes usually given out at the holidays for gifts. Who else would have enough liquor boxes to decorate a 15-foot tree? As I write about it now, it seems rather strange, but back then I thought it was somehow magical to see the boxes sparkling in the tree lights and gently moving back and forth in the wind. As far as I&amp;#039;m concerned, with outdoor holiday decorations, the more, the better. My mother used to put a single candle in each window, and, although this was simple and elegant, I always longed for a spectacular display of hundreds of lights. After all, this is one of the few chances we have as adults to do something outrageous and tacky and still draw a smile on most people&amp;#039;s faces.  I&amp;#039;d love to see pictures of your outdoor displays. Send them here and we&amp;#039;ll post them later on in the month.-Janet Sobesky To see a slide show of my favorite holiday displays, click here*  Related: Are you an &amp;quot;Inflatable Type&amp;quot; or a &amp;quot;Light&amp;#039;s Type&amp;quot;? Read &amp;quot;Christmas Displays With Personality&amp;quot;  *photos courtesy of flickr "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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