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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.
(Agencies) |
在圣誕時節，開車經過隨便一個英國小鎮郊區，你都不會不注意到鎮上被節日燈飾點亮的房屋，有時整條街道都被打扮出多姿多彩的風格。
圣誕節變得越來越“珠光寶氣”了，市場上可以看到各式各樣的燈，有樸素的冰條燈串，也有12英尺長的大組燈“圣誕老人和他的馴鹿們”。
五年前，如果不去專門的燈具店，人們很難看到這么多的戶外裝飾燈。可如今在任何一個公園中心和很多街面店鋪、甚至通過網絡都可以買到這種燈。
越來越多的人著迷于節日裝飾，廠家們趕上了需求爆炸的“盛世”。
喬納森·肖是一家名叫“圣誕燈火管理”的網上燈飾供應公司的主管，他說：“今年是我們生意最好做的一年，我們賣光了幾乎所有的貨物。”
“美國的風尚傳到了我們這兒，那頭的整條街道在圣誕節都被打扮的古怪起來。”
“當我們還是小孩子時，很少會有人裝飾戶外。可是現在越來越多的人開始在花園里放一些裝飾物，然后他們的鄰居也紛紛效仿。”
盡管不斷下跌的價格可能刺激了銷售，肖先生認為人們仍然樂意在節日裝飾上花個幾百美金。
他說：“如果你想用冰條燈裝飾房屋，花五六十英鎊就可以辦到，但是200到250英鎊的訂單也并不少見。”
“我們最貴的一套燈飾是一條12英尺長的燈光橫幅‘圣誕快樂’，售價在148英鎊左右，但很快就賣光了，價值125英鎊的3D圣誕列車也賣得很快。”
有些人在燈光裝飾上花了好幾千英鎊和幾個星期的時間，將場景弄的非常壯觀，以確保他們的“燈火秀”（和別家相比）是最大最亮的。
丹尼和圣安妮·米克爾為他們在拉納克郡科爾伯恩的家園點亮了燈火，十年來年年如此。
他們的“燈火秀”用了120萬個燈泡，還有總價值五萬英鎊的裝飾物和設備，從兩英里外就能看到。
（中國日報網站譯） |
Updated: 2004-12-24 09:05