Ah, Christmas. That magical time when for four weeks out of the year, we cover our houses with all manner of lights, inflatables, and nativities that somehow capture the wonder of the season.

Followers of my Facebook page know I’m not a big fan of Christmas. It feels like a lot of clutter and tolerating of mediocre music while people feel obligated to have a great time.

It’s Christmas, dammit. Feel the joy. You’re not joyful enough.

That said, Christmas displays deserve a spot in the Funny Friday lineup, mostly because my house looks like this:

Mine isn’t the crazy one in the foreground. That’s my neighbor’s house. Mine is the one to the left. You can’t really tell from this pic, but our yard, roof, and house front are covered with decorations. You can kind of see the large snowflakes on the roof.

Neighbor set all this up. This is the thing that he does. He’s one of those guys who times the lights with music, which you can listen to in your car if the radio is tuned to the right station. Years back, it started with just his house, and the show was very well received. Cars lined up on our short, normally quiet street. Last year, the display expanded onto our property and the one across the street. This year, he has a total of six houses involved. Ours is in the middle of the three on our side of the street. The other three houses face ours from across the street. All the lights will be coordinated with the music, so in theory, you could park your car in the middle of all this and be completely surrounded by Christmas joy.

I’m posting this on Friday morning, and the show’s supposed to start tonight. If you’re reading this after Friday evening, scroll to the bottom of the post for a video.

Now, this wouldn’t be a Funny Friday post without pictures from around the interwebs. So let’s appreciate a few of those. As always, I make no personal claim to these images.

I think this is a Christmas display, but it could just be the product of a really exited Star Trek fan on convention weekend.

We seriously considered using this “ditto” idea a few years ago.

Now this is my kind of decorating.

Don’t worry, everyone. I found all the lights.

How much do you want to bet that a sweet, totally clueless eighty-year-old woman lives here? “Oh, my dear grandson decorated for me. He’s just so thoughtful.”

So go out and look at the joyful lights. Appreciate the colorful illumination and semi-inflated giant Santas. Stand in wonder at the moving train wheels and angels that twist from side to side. Do it for Baby Jesus.