Bling bling merrily on high
圣诞天空璀璨夺目 灯火辉煌流光溢彩
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Where one house leads, others often follow (BBC)
Drive through the suburbs of any British town and you will not fail to notice the houses, and sometimes whole streets, lit up with festive decorations - with varying degrees of taste.
Christmas has gone bling, with a massive range of lights on the market, from modest "icicle" chains to 12ft illuminated sets of Santa and his reindeers.
Five years ago it was hard to find outdoor lights without going to a specialist, but they are now available in every garden centre, as well as many high street shops and online.
With more and more people catching the decorating bug, manufacturers have experienced an explosion in demand.
Jonathan Shaw, director of online lights supply firm Christmas Lights Direct, said: "It's been a very good year for us. We've sold almost everything we had.
"The American trend is coming over here. Over there the whole street goes barmy at Christmas.
"When we were children very few people trimmed up outside but now, more and more people are starting to put something in their garden, then their neighbours follow suit."
Although falling prices have probably boosted sales, Mr Shaw says people are still willing to spend hundreds on their displays.
He said: "If you want to decorate a house with icicles, you can do it for ￡50 or ￡60 but orders of ￡200 or ￡250 have not been uncommon.
"Our most expensive line was a 12ft sign saying Merry Christmas, which cost about ￡148, but that sold out very quickly, as did the 3D Christmas trains, which were ￡125.
Some people go to extraordinary lengths to make sure their display is the biggest and brightest, spending thousands on decorations which take weeks to erect.
Danny and Anne Meikle have been lighting up their house in Coalburn, Lanarkshire, every year for a decade.
The display, which uses 1.2 million bulbs and ￡50,000-worth of decorations and equipment, can be seen for two miles away.
在圣诞时节，开车经过随便一个英国小镇郊区，你都不会不注意到镇上被节日灯饰点亮的房屋，有时整条街道都被打扮出多姿多彩的风格。
圣诞节变得越来越“珠光宝气”了，市场上可以看到各式各样的灯，有朴素的冰条灯串，也有12英尺长的大组灯“圣诞老人和他的驯鹿们”。
五年前，如果不去专门的灯具店，人们很难看到这么多的户外装饰灯。可如今在任何一个公园中心和很多街面店铺、甚至通过网络都可以买到这种灯。
越来越多的人着迷于节日装饰，厂家们赶上了需求爆炸的“盛世”。
乔纳森·肖是一家名叫“圣诞灯火管理”的网上灯饰供应公司的主管，他说：“今年是我们生意最好做的一年，我们卖光了几乎所有的货物。”
“美国的风尚传到了我们这儿，那头的整条街道在圣诞节都被打扮的古怪起来。”
“当我们还是小孩子时，很少会有人装饰户外。可是现在越来越多的人开始在花园里放一些装饰物，然后他们的邻居也纷纷效仿。”
尽管不断下跌的价格可能刺激了销售，肖先生认为人们仍然乐意在节日装饰上花个几百美金。
他说：“如果你想用冰条灯装饰房屋，花五六十英镑就可以办到，但是200到250英镑的订单也并不少见。”
“我们最贵的一套灯饰是