Imagine the reaction to the megawatt glow of the Griswold family home from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”
Last week, residents of a military housing complex in Florida got a bah-humbug reminder of the strict rules for holiday decorating:
No canned “snow” fogging up the windows. No glowing runway leading guests to the front door. No sleds, no reindeer, no twinkling lights. No Santas clinging to the roof as if they have missed the sleigh.
And under no circumstances should the Christmas decorations that are allowed elbow their way in before Thanksgiving. (And don’t let them linger much past New Year’s, either.)
That may sound like the start of a cheesy Christmas movie, before the grumps learn to embrace the joys of the holidays. Instead, the language is from the actual rulebook for housing near Tyndall Air Force Base, about 12 miles from Panama City, Fla.
And it’s causing some backlash.
“If you currently have Yuletide décor present on the outside of your home, please remove it,” a manager wrote to residents after seeing Christmas decorations starting to sprout on the lawns of homes near the base during an early November drive.
The directive, a base spokesman explained, came from Balfour Beatty Communities, the private company that operates the homes near the base.
“They are enforcing the community standards outlined in the legally binding lease agreement all residents voluntarily sign,” Justin Davidson-Beebe, a spokesman for Tyndall Air Force Base, said in a statement this week. He would not say whether officials at the Air Force base had ever enforced the policy themselves.
But what began as a routine housekeeping reminder became the latest flare-up in America’s ever-smoldering debate over how soon is too soon to put up your Christmas lights.
In online channels, places where rules, frustrations and humor often collide, many commenters questioned why a housing company would fixate on the timing of Christmas lights instead of the more immediate issues families face.
Others said such rules were precisely why they avoided base housing altogether. Several people criticized the directive as unnecessarily strict or “Grinch-like,” wondering what harm a wreath or a string of lights could possibly cause.
Some voices pointed out that early decorating was often practical or emotional. Families sometimes put lights up before a spouse deploys, creating a few early moments of shared holiday comfort before the separation begins.
By that first evening, the conversation had spread to military forums, then to news sites, gathering momentum with each retelling.
By the next week, Balfour Beatty Communities issued a clarification.
“Our holiday decoration guidelines are designed to provide a general framework to help maintain consistency in our communities,” a spokeswoman wrote in an email on Wednesday. “We value the joy and creativity our residents bring to their neighborhoods, especially during the holidays, and apologize for any confusion.”
In other words: Never mind.
When asked why some residents had received discretionary letters for putting up their Christmas lights early and whether they would be rescinded, the spokeswoman replied: “We apologize for any confusion.”
And with that, the rule dissolved.
Mark Walker is an investigative reporter for The Times focused on transportation. He is based in Washington.
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