Christmas Lights

Yeah, it's that time of year again. How many of you put up Christmas lights? Do you just string it around a tree and call it a day, or do you go full out and outline the entirety of your roof? Do you use reindeers and sleighs and other additional structures too? (for the non-Christmas inclined, I'm not sure what decorations you might have but talk about them here too)

And here's a random light question for anyone who might have the answer: So my parents just bought these icicle-style lights (where strands of 3-6 bulbs hang down from the main wire) and I'm planning on putting them up. When they come out of the box, though, the icicle parts are all scrunched up and it looks kind of bad. Do these things lengthen on their own with enough time, or do you have to straighten them out? If the latter, what do you do?

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Over the years it's somehow become my task to put up the Christmas lights. It's an enjoyable job, I guess. The monotony of the work is pleasant. But it's kind of annoying that it'll never get done unless I do it. Case in point:

Today I strung up lights over the garage and half the side of the house (thinking about putting up lights on the other half of the side, which requires going on the roof). Took around 2 hours to do it and lots of precarious ladder balancing acts. Thought I was done with that, but nooo, parents bought a doe/buck light up deer thing, and I had to set it up and then put those out too. My fingertips are terribly raw right now.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Taking them down truly is a pain.

Actually, no. The act of taking them down is okay compared to what comes after: storing them. Unless you take care in the way you wrap up those lights, you'll have an untangling fiasco on your hands 11 months later.

Anyone have any good ideas for storing lights? I'm personally planning to just put them in a bag.

How ya doing, buddy?