House Bling!

Bling season!

2012-12-04T18:16:31Z

Hello,

It's housebling season again, so please do post any suitable pictures here. I don't know if I can successfully link to this picture from facebook, but it's quite an amusing one, so I'll try: here!

Mexican Housebling

2009-02-23T17:02:02Z

I should have gone and reshot this in the evening when the lights were on, but you get the idea:

tacky christmas yards

2009-02-22T20:48:11Z

http://tackychristmasyards.com/

Ship Bling

2008-11-28T16:07:33Z

House bling season is upon us again! Here is a very poor picture of ship-bling - featuring HMS Warrior in Portsmouth Harbour:

Wobsyblingy

2008-02-10T22:57:31Z

Is it too late to post some bling from my Christmas in Arkansas? I feel faintly ashamed of myself for my behavior here last year, especially since you guys have posted some amazing stuff.

With permission, I'd also like to post some Very Special Bonus Grannybling:

Thank you for your time and attention.

ahh, here we go!

2008-01-06T20:04:38Z

Housebling, a Flickr group...

http://www.flickr.com/groups/pimp_my_dive/

how scary...

housebling @ 2007-12-30T22:47:00

2007-12-30T22:50:57Z

Spotted in Radcliffe on Boxing Day.

The house with 10,000 fairy lights

2007-12-21T11:36:20Z

Christmas-crazy Alex Goodhind paid for workmen to dig up his road and lay an industrial power cable to supply a display of 100,000 fairy lights.

Electrician Mr Goodhind, 23, used so much power he was unable to boil a kettle if his festive lights were switched on.

So he paid £700 for Southern Electricity to install a factory-strength 145amp power line to ensure fans of his annual display would not be left disappointed.

Mr Goodhind spent five weeks putting up the lavish decorations, which will add £500 to his electricity bill over the three-week festive period.

This year, he has spent £2,000 on additional lights to the delight of his daily crowd of 300 visitors.

'A lot of local organisations make minibus trips to see the lights. But we don't mind the popularity because it gives so much joy to so many people,' Mr Goodhind said.

His father Colin, 57, said: 'Alex started putting up lights when he was about ten, although as it got bigger we did start to feel a bit embarrassed. 'But now we have come full circle and ended up loving it.'

The display in Melksham, Wiltshire, raises £3,000 a year for a local hospice.

From Metro.

Highland Road Southsea

2007-12-19T21:12:16Z

This is a collaborative effort between two neighbours in Southsea

Northwest London Bling

2007-12-18T23:31:11Z

As promised to gleet here is some London house bling. As you know the London house bling is generally a less overwhelming phenomenon than one might find outside the capital. However, there are still some prime examples of illuminated Christmas folly. This one is from West Hampstead NW6.

What can't be picked out are the range of figures along the front wall, which play songs and offer festive greetings to passers-by. Luckily not too loudly; I can't imagine the neighbours love it.

House Bling competition

2007-12-17T16:30:02Z

a marvel in Malvern

I should go down there and look but it's too cold and my car is too far away

I have many

2007-12-12T21:23:50Z

St Helier in Carshalton has many kinds of housebling, and a bright blue rudolph in the first one. (I was shaking so much when I took it, I'll have to go back)

There were also a large amount of blow up snowmen, though you can't see them too well in the dark.

housebling @ 2007-12-12T01:21:00

2007-12-12T01:24:37Z

Taken with, I'm ashamed to say, a camera phone. Location: not far from gleet, spotted fortunately or unfortunately depending on your perspective as a result of a wrong turn.

House bling is back!

2007-10-23T09:46:28Z

Oxford Street Bling

2006-12-31T19:36:24Z

I meant to post these before but I forgot.

The last one there certainly puts Mango's American standards to the test.

From last christmas.

2006-12-31T18:58:43Z

I still haven't been out with the camera yet this housebling season. Here's one from last year, in Portsmouth:

housebling @ 2006-12-28T22:50:00

2006-12-28T22:50:00Z

Ignoring the fact that offensive_mango has tried to spoil our fun by applying her American standasrds round here, I give you this, which I saw just round the corner from my sister's house over the Winterval period:

My crappy camera phone doesn't really capture it in all its glory. The most notable missing detail is that the blue and green blobs on the side of the house are actually some kind of moving image being projected.

ultimate bling

2006-12-18T21:17:11Z

Look, I'm sorry, but British people have no idea. To American eyes, what you consider "offensive" levels of decoration score on the "not even trying" scale for us.

Take Jennings Osborne as an example, and start thanking your lucky stars. He was a local Arkansas rich guy, whose spoiled daughter wanted some Christmas lights in 1986. His neighbors also put up some lights, so he competed by BUYING THEIR HOUSES.

His lights eventually numbered 4 million, and clogged traffic every Christmas to the point where no emergency services could get through. He had to have his lights removed by court order. They were bought by DISNEYWORLD who now every year have a Jennings Osborne Christmas Lights display.

In addition to the photo below, you can see more pictures here and read the story here. And you really, really should.

By 1993, the display grew to 3 million lights and could be seen by plane from as far as 80 miles away. The extravaganza included a three-dimensional replica of the world, which was suspended 100 feet in the air that would flash PEACE ON EARTH. Also included was a computerized light display of a train engineered by a waving Mickey Mouse.
"It was our own little Disney World,'' Jennings recalls with a smile. As a result, thousands from all over the state flocked to see the world's largest home Christmas light display. Television crews from as far away as Japan and Australia chronicled the massive event.

Around Wantage

2006-12-18T20:24:05Z

About twenty meters down the path from me, we have this:

That's been getting more ridiculous for each of the past six years I've watched it. This year, however, we have been excused the accompaniment of a sound track. This man's enthusiasm (for it is a man, and the loveliest, most gentle salt of Little England type as well, strangely enough, although I expect he has crackingly legal exchanges with various of his neighbours) is so great that his decoration is infecting the neighbouring house.

Down the road perpendicular to the path, we have another matched pair:

And I do wonder what's going on there. A pair of brothers engaged in an annual electrical warfare to prove who is the alpha male? Notice the zigzag down the middle: "This is my house and my fantastic decorations, and that's your paltry effort ... "

Acros the road from the previous we have these two, much more subdued in style:

As I was taking pictures a gentleman came out of the nearer house carrying a stepladder and placed it into a position where he could climb up to adjust the position of a santa.

"Do you mind?" I asked. "I'm trying to take pictures!" He looked at me quizzically.

"I'm trying to take pictures because all of the lights are so pretty," I said, in an ameliorating manner.

I'm going straight to hell.

Portsmouth #1

2006-12-17T19:01:05Z

Welcome to Housebling! To get us going, here's an example from around the corner to me, in which a splendid display has been put on top of a garage:

Please, post your bling!