Have you ever wondered why X-mas is celebrated at the end of December, in the darkest time of winter? I am talking about the Northern hemisphere here of course. Our fellow commonwealth members, Kangaroos and Springboks have 
to make something of X-mas in the scorching heat and with daylight staying on forever. Not here in Canada, where it is winter and getting dark pretty early. So, back to our question, why? I can think of a few very obvious reasons. For one, Santa Klaus could easily be spotted driving his sleigh through the sky in broad daylight. Or worse, he could be shot down when flying past without dropping presents in chimneys. People are not that patient anymore and guns are readily availabe. Also, the star of Bethlehem would be totally invisible, so you would not know where to go. And then there is a less obvious reason, lights. Eindhoven may have its 'Glow' festival every year, and Paris may be the city of lights, it all pales into insignificance compared to the exuberant display of light Canadians present. Now, not everyone lives in a mansion and has plenty of space to nail lights to, or put illuminated copies of Santa and Rudolph up. Not a problem, as professionals cater for these less fortunate. The botanical gardens of Van Dusen are so brightly lit that airline pilots get confused as to where Vancouver Airport is actually located. And even the representatives of the people in British Columbia, join in by putting a lot of lights on Parliament Building.
to make something of X-mas in the scorching heat and with daylight staying on forever. Not here in Canada, where it is winter and getting dark pretty early. So, back to our question, why? I can think of a few very obvious reasons. For one, Santa Klaus could easily be spotted driving his sleigh through the sky in broad daylight. Or worse, he could be shot down when flying past without dropping presents in chimneys. People are not that patient anymore and guns are readily availabe. Also, the star of Bethlehem would be totally invisible, so you would not know where to go. And then there is a less obvious reason, lights. Eindhoven may have its 'Glow' festival every year, and Paris may be the city of lights, it all pales into insignificance compared to the exuberant display of light Canadians present. Now, not everyone lives in a mansion and has plenty of space to nail lights to, or put illuminated copies of Santa and Rudolph up. Not a problem, as professionals cater for these less fortunate. The botanical gardens of Van Dusen are so brightly lit that airline pilots get confused as to where Vancouver Airport is actually located. And even the representatives of the people in British Columbia, join in by putting a lot of lights on Parliament Building. 
Not much of this splendor would be visible in the midst of summer I am sure. And then there are the private home owners. Quite a few of them go totally bananas when it comes to lights. I would settle for a few LED-lights to keep the costs down, as it is an expensive time anyway. But not these people. No horses could drag me into putting up such a display in the first place, and then lighting it night after night till X-mas.
Not only would the power meter go berserk, the bright light would also force me to wear shades to be able to fall asleep. Obviously, there are people that do not mind at all. And quite a few of them at that. There are consequences as well, as I learned from the Vancouver Sun:
"The storm’s high winds also knocked out power to about 11,000 customers...
Well, that is what they think. I know better. And it is likely to happen again tonight or any night when in thousands of Canadian houses the plug for the X-mas light display is plugged in.
Black out...
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