Glenn Kuhn and son Jeremy have strung fewer lights at their home in the Candy Cane Lane neighborhood of West Allis, known for its extravagant Christmas displays, because of higher electricity costs.
Posted on 12/14/2005 2:45:13 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
(To save money, people are cutting out or cutting back)
Afraid of being iced by expensive electric bills, some business districts and homeowners around Milwaukee - including some in the sightseers' favorite Candy Cane Lane neighborhood - are changing their Christmas light-hanging ways this season.
Some are stringing fewer lights; others are delaying hanging them. The City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Downtown, the business improvement district, are converting to energy-efficient lights.
"People are doing anything to save on energy," said Ed Staples, co-owner of Staples Bros. Paint & Hardware store at N. 34th and W. Burleigh streets.
Sales of Christmas lights have slumped this year, and it's noticeable not only in his books but in his neighborhood, as well, Staples said.
"If you drive through a lot of the neighborhood, you don't see a lot of lighting like you used to," he said.
Don Seger, manager of Puhl's True Value Hardware at N. 68th St. and W. Milwaukee Ave. in Wauwatosa, has seen a similar drop in sales.
We Energies raised electricity rates twice this year, totaling about 7%, and anticipates an 11% increase in January.
Violet and Glenn Kuhn's house on S. 94th St. in the middle of Candy Cane Lane in West Allis was the focus of many photos last year. The entire property - the giant tree in front, the bushes, the archway, even the whole porch - glowed, Violet Kuhn said. "It was phenomenal," she said.
Not this year.
The Kuhns strung some icicle lights and placed a large inflatable snowman and some illuminated deer in the yard this year, but the lighted decorations pale in comparison to last year's, she said.
"We really, really cut back," she said. "It's just so expensive. We couldn't afford it anymore."
Kuhn said she already noticed a significant spike last month in her electricity bill, even before hanging the Christmas lights. And she knows she's not alone. Kuhn sees similar situations with her neighbors on Candy Cane Lane, an area bounded by S. 92nd and S. 96th streets and W. Oklahoma and W. Montana avenues in West Allis.
Some turn their lights off early. Others are not participating at all, she said.
"I just couldn't believe this year how many dark houses there were," she said.
Greg Karow's house isn't dark anymore. Karow finally hung lights on his W. Montana Ave. house last weekend.
"I've been busy, but I've also been putting it off because of energy concerns," Karow said, noting that holiday lights usually cost him an extra $40 a month or so.
"I'm thinking of asking We Energies to help with the costs," he said.
Beth Nicols, too, is looking to cut electricity costs. As executive director of Milwaukee Downtown, which lights up nearly 500,000 holiday bulbs along streets, in parks and elsewhere every year, Nicols' district has thousands of dollars at stake.
Nicols said she met with consultants last week to learn more about saving money on holiday lights.
"We are not going to stop with the motion of holiday decorating," she said. "It's extremely important to the community from a civic perspective as well as an economic perspective. . . We would all like to see our utility bills lower, but the reality is the investment in holiday decorations brings people to the downtown area."
Nicols said the district is considering swapping some of the old-fashioned lights for the newer LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, which use about one-tenth the electricity of a typical string of mini-lights and can last as long as 20 years.
LEDs cost more initially, from $10 to $20 for a string of 100 lights, but burn seven to ten times as long as traditional lights. They are encased in plastic, use semi-conductor chips as a light source and, because there are no filaments, don't produce much heat or burn out.
Savings from LEDs can be significant, according to Wisconsin Public Service Corp., the Green Bay-based utility.
For example, lighting 1,000 bulbs for five hours a day for 30 days would cost about $70 if using standard large (C-7) bulbs or $7 if using mini-lights. LEDs would cost about 70 cents, according to the corporation's calculations.
The City of Milwaukee switched to blue LEDs this year on E. Kilbourn Ave. between N. Water St. and N. Broadway, said Cecilia Gilbert, spokeswoman for the Public Works Department.
"We were looking for ways to save money," she said. "And we've gotten a lot of compliments on them."
Gilbert said the city is considering converting the lights on the city/county holiday/Christmas tree in Red Arrow Park to LEDs next year.
"We're definitely seeing a trend toward these products," said Natalie Danaher, spokeswoman for Ace Hardware's corporate offices. "They've more than quadrupled in the course of a year."
Ace carried one LED product line in 2004 and five this year and plans to expand again next year, Danaher said.
Of course, not everybody is concerned about the climbing costs of hanging Christmas lights, and some retailers even say conventional light sales are soaring.
Jim Rozman, owner of Rozman True Value Hardware at S. 71st St. and W. Lincoln Ave. in West Allis, said lights are "going out of here three and four boxes at a time. They are just flying out of here."
Rozman credits his successful light sales to his discounted prices.
Ruth Fischer, another Candy Cane Lane homeowner, said she and her husband have been decorating the house since 1965 and won't cut back this year.
"We even added lights this year," she said. "For one month, it's not a problem. We can offer it up."
Glenn Kuhn and son Jeremy have strung fewer lights at their home in the Candy Cane Lane neighborhood of West Allis, known for its extravagant Christmas displays, because of higher electricity costs.
We have the same amount out as always - but it's just a few strings in the bushes, as always. Do lights really pull that much power, if you're not the Griswold family?
The City of Milwaukee installed energy-saving blue LED lights on E. Kilbourn Ave. between N. Broadway and N. Water St.
This is the Journal-Sentinel. It's imperative they carry the leftist torch that we're all going to have a Cr@ppy Christmas due to President Bush and a Republican administration. *Rolleyes*
I have less lights up, but that's because I wasn't as quick as usual and the weather turned to ice & snow early this year. I actually put up MORE lights inside the house to compensate, and I have those electric candles in all of the windows that face the road.
I really want some of those lighted, moving reindeer and hope to find some on deep discount after Christmas. :)
I see. Well, if I lived on a street called "Candy Cane Lane", I'd have to go all out, no matter who was president. :)
No kidding! :)
Puhl's True Value Hardware at N. 68th St. and W. Milwaukee Ave. in Wauwatosa
That's the hardware store I go to. Never thought my hardware store would make it on FR. How cool!
I LOVE hardware stores. If I ever fall upon hard times and need to pick up a few extra bucks, the first place I'll be applying to work is my local True Value Hardware Store.
Just to be around those old guys that know how to fix anything and everything with spit & bailer twine would be an awesome experience, don't you think? LOL!
Third time's the charm, LOL! That is really pretty! You have those deer that I want to get.
How do you get those lights up to the top of that tallest tree?
Those deer are just regular old white-wire deer, the old kind you can get real cheap.
My daughter and I spray-painted them last year to look more like real deer. We experimented with brown, tan, copper, and a few other colors. We found the tan-like look was good, I used cream on the antlers, on some deer I put a brown undercoat followed by some lighter shades.
The paint covers the bulbs too, which are too bright otherwise. Anyway, wanted you to know because anybody can do that to their deer, and then you don't have to spend extra for those brown grapevine deer.
I do like the new sculptures which have the "glass bead wire" wrapping which pick up the light and spread it out.
I have a 20-foot pole (a stick stuck on the end of a 8-16 foot extendable pool cleaning pole), and I stand on the porch roof and hook the light using a metal hook made from wire (like a coat hanger). THen I just work it back and forth down, sometimes with my wife pulling the wires from below and walking back and forth. It's the hardest thing I do on the house, I wish I could work around the tree better but it's over 40 feet to the ground on the far side of the tree.
Thanks for the tips on the deer. Now that you explained it, they do show their color quite well.
I'll be hitting the Christmas Clearance sales for the el-cheapo wire ones, for sure!
I have a 30' White Pine that's at the intersection of my drive way and near the side door, though it's a straight shot from the road, so I thought that tree alone, filled with lights, would be just gorgeous for us (inside, because you can see it from the window at the bottom of the stairway) and for those traveling by. The lighted deer would look just perfect underneath.
Next year, for sure, that thing is going to be loaded with white lights. Maybe if I start in July... :)
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