Electrical Holiday Traditions

I'd assume that the energy companies love the holiday season, at least the few individuals who reside at the highest levels of the inner workings. This is not only due to the images of superficial smiles on faces all around hearth fires, but also because its cold, really cold, so cold home furnaces aren't allowed a smoke break. Heating a house forces dollars to be handed to energy companies, or else the fuel is shut off and the pipes in the house freeze, expanding water forces fissures to form in the lines, resulting in flooding from the inside--that's no good. Internal heat is necessary and an extra expense when compared to other seasons in the year.

In addition to spending more money on heat, it is tradition to decorate the interior and exterior of houses with thousands of tiny twinkling little light bulbs of all different colors; to the extent that one neighbor might call the police on another neighbor claiming that their lighting display is a disturbance to the peace, and then there is the potential that the peace disruptor may be placed into custody and escorted into a jail cell for pushing a once joyful time honored tradition past the boundaries of what is and is not acceptable. Energy is swallowed by these little lights, like a can of beer being shotgunned. Gulp. Faster and faster the meter outside each home spins, dizzying to watch from that which is meant to dazzle. More and more money is forked over, like passing the gravy at the dinner table it is a voluntary action, but it is tradition.