I have to say that Christmas lights are just one of those things that make me genuinely happy. I can’t help but pass a house full of Christmas lights and smile. I know I told you all the first Christmas that I started writing that when I was four years old, we moved to Roosevelt Avenue in Old Lycoming Township. I could see Candy Cane Lane from my window in my little back bedroom. I’d look out, and on the mountain could see the street shining bright. I pictured what it looked like in my head until Mom and Dad took me over. My face was probably smashed against the car window once we finally got over there, taking in every single house that shined so bright. Christmas lights make me feel like an eight-year-old little girl again.

I’m ninety percent sure my dad loves Christmas lights as much as me. He always had our house lit up so pretty every year and worked all day on them, making sure everything worked and looked perfect. He is now in his sixties and puts up more lights now than he ever did! We were out hanging up lights at our house at the beginning of December, and he drove up on the tractor. He lives below us.

He said, “It looks really nice, honey. BUT, it could be better if they were colored, though!”

There has always been the battle of white light and colored lights in this family. It honestly wouldn’t feel like December if there wasn’t. My brother and I do white lights. My brother lives above us. So I am the rose between two thorns, pretty much. (Ha!) Our house sits in the middle. Our houses are done in white; then my dad’s in colored.

When he moved out here a few years ago, my brother told him he was ruining our “country white” lookout here. We always tease him! But my dad’s just wouldn’t look the same in white, just like our houses wouldn’t with colored. My dad will argue with me, saying he will make our house look fabulous with colored lights, but I beg to differ with him over my rustic primitive look. That’s why our house on Roosevelt had white in the front yard and colored in the backyard. My mom loves white lights too.

Listen, I love all lights! Colored, white, LED, all blue, and even the C7s. I just prefer white on my own house with hints of red and green. I got engaged on Candy Cane Lane, for Pete’s sake! Trust me; I love them all! Lights are like Christmas — it’s like the gift of light when people need it most. It’s not dark and depressing. There’s so much joy in it!

Candy Cane Lane is my favorite place in the world. My daughter is the same way. We love going up and down at LEAST four times in a row. This year there were so many new things, and things changed around. My husband cracks up at me because I’ll be like, “So that house had the Santa’s hiney on fire, but now they gave it to their neighbors because it just wouldn’t match their adorable gingerbread house theme!”

It’s like I have it memorized year to year. No wonder, with as much as I am there!

To everyone who works so hard on Candy Cane Lane, thank you. You make so many people happy and give us a wonderful tradition each year to enjoy. I can’t imagine having Christmas time with no Candy Cane Lane. We went to Elizabethtown for Christmas with my brother and sister-in-law, and on the way home, stopped at the Stone Gables Estates. Six hundred thousand lights and gorgeous barns and churches lit up throughout the drive. It was absolutely breathtaking!! I’d drive two hours to go see it again and tell everyone to go see it if you can. Truly amazing. But it wasn’t my Candy Cane Lane.

It’s the memories that go with Candy Cane Lane that make it so special. Memories as a little girl talking to Santa on Christmas Eve and getting a candy cane, to my boyfriend getting down on one knee and proposing to me on December 19, 2004, on that very street, and taking my kids up Candy Cane Lane for the first time. The memories will continue on, and with each year.

I hope that Christmas lights bring light to your life. That any darkness you may have, may the brightness of Christmas bring you JOY.

Instead of a recipe, you get a Scavenger Hunt on Candy Cane Lane!

Go over and have fun with it. This scavenger hunt goes clear to the top of Summer Street at the stop sign and then makes the left onto the top of Spring Street.

Last year the week I did this, it snowed 2 feet, so many things you couldn’t see. Here’s a new list, and I hope a new tradition I can give your family each December.

*Also, check out the houses on the bottom of Spring Street. The scavenger hunt DOES NOT go down there, but there are some cute houses done up below, and Santa could be watching you from the window! *Wink Wink*
Enjoy! With holiday love, Andrea

Candy Cane Lane Scavenger Hunt
___ JOY with a Penguin for the “O”
___ Two snowmen Sled riding
___ Santa’s Hiney on Fire
___ Big Lollipops
___ Elf holding a sign that says “Santa Stop Here”
___ Welcome Jesus Sign
___ Support our Troops Sign
___ Find Three Grinches
___ Polar Bears
___ Two Matching snowmen holding Presents
___ Three GIANT ornaments
___ Santa’s Sleigh!!!!
___ Rocking Horse
___ Life size Bumbles!
___ Whoville Street Sign
___ Five large red Stockings with teddy Bears
___ SpongeBob
___ Two Toy soldiers Guarding Santa
___ Very Large Wreath with a Believe banner in the Middle of it
___ How many Manger Scenes can you find??
___ Weiner Dog
___ Santa and Mrs. Clause by the Sleigh, with Rudolph leading the way!