Creating 'Festivity': Household Christmas Lights Displays and Community Cohesion

摘要

In this paper we examine the popular practice in Britain of illuminating the outside of homes with enormous displays of animated and multi-coloured Christmas lights. We first examine the fierce criticism ofrnChristmas light displays and go on to examine how Christmas lights displayers have produced a particular aesthetic - and to argue that the practice represents an emergent form of non-professional creativity, which may operate outside the orthodoxies of good design. Nevertheless such work transforms ostensibly banal urban landscapes in a powerful and spectacular fashion after dark. Through their chaotic and excessive nature, these light displays are able to generate sensations of fun and frivolity, in a way which is poorly understood amongst mainstream planners andrnurban lighting designers. Finally, we argue that, despite the intense media criticism which denigrates such displays for their negative environmental and aesthetic impact, they strongly contribute to an element of conviviality, festivity and generosity. We conclude that they help in the construction of socially cohesive neighbourhood identity in ways hitherto unimagined in mainstream social policy.