Viral Post Reveals Neighbors Don’t Have to Be Christmas Light Rivals

For surprises as far as after buying a house go, finding out your neighbor is known for their impressive Christmas light display isn’t all that bad. Possibly feeling pressured to string up some lights and pay an inflated electric bill for a month isn’t great, but it’s better than finding termites or mold or any of the thousand other things that can go wrong with a house.

One Redditor, however, found himself unable to put up an outdoor display after he invested in indoor decorations for his new home due to the ridiculousness of his neighbor’s display and the cost of decorations. Now, you might think he’d just have to accept being the dark neighbor next to the shining beacon of holiday mirth, but he and his new neighbor came up with a creative solution that you just have to tip your (Santa) hat to.

“[S]o after I bought this house I was informed my neighbors do it big for Christmas. I spent a lot [sic] of money already buying a new tree and all the decorations for the inside,” u/ImBrokeEveryWed wrote. “[S]o I talked to my neighbor and we came up with the perfect solution. I promise I’m not really a grinch!!”

The photo that accompanied this post shows the neighbor’s home with lights lining the roof and trees wrapped densely in lights (including branches that are well beyond the height of a standard household ladder). A single strand of lights extends into our poster’s yard, an otherwise dark abyss where a light-up version of The Grinch holds the strand as if he’s trying to make off with the Joneses’ decorations.

The post is less than a day old, and it’s already garnered more than 1,300 comments and 96,600 upvotes. Those are impressive numbers, a testament to both the cleverness of this neighborly solution and how it departs from the unspoken Christmas light rivalries that play out on many American blocks every year.