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CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA


Christmas in America's front yards

This Dec. 4, 2012 photo shows spectators viewing a a giant Santa Claus at a decorated home in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Each holiday season, tour operator Tony Muia takes tourists from around the world on his “Christmas Lights & Cannoli Tour” visiting the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge, where locals take pride in over-the-top holiday light displays. Photo: Seth Wenig / AP
Whether it's a '65 Chevy pickup festooned with stars and colored lights on "Candy Cane Lane" in Los Angeles or the row houses on 34th Street in Baltimore, festively transformed to the "Miracle on 34th Street," Americans go all-out decorating their houses and front yards for the Christmas holiday. Homes in Cary, N.C., and Montgomery Ala., are so populated with radiant Nativity figures, shimmering snowmen and towering Santas, that barely a patch of lawn is visible. In California, a firehouse in San Francisco and a surf shack in San Diego opt for simpler adornments, the natural setting adding to the beauty of the display. Here are some highlights from across the country.
In this Sunday Dec. 9, 2012 photo, Adriana Leiss and her daughters Gabriella and Amelia replace burned out light bulbs on their 1965 Chevy pick-up truck decorated for Christmas at their house, on what is known as "Candy Cane Lane" in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles. Photo: Richard Vogel / AP
In this Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012 photo, Christmas lights and ornaments adorn a house on Castro Street in San Francisco. Photo: Jeff Chiu / AP
In this Tuesday, Dec. 2012 photo, colorful Christmas figures fill the yard of Michael Goldsmith who has decorated his Montgomery, Ala., home and yard for over thirty years before dying of cancer earlier this year. For 34 years Goldsmith filled his yard with hundreds of Christmas decorations. Friends memorialized him this year by continuing the lighting display at his house. Photo: Dave Martin / AP
Unable to compete with her neighbor, Eric Cyr, Kristina Green opted to decorate her home, left, with a 450-light "Ditto" sign and an arrow pointing to Cyr's 20,000-light Christmas display, as shown Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012 in Maricopa, Ariz. Photo: Ross D. Franklin / AP
In this Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012 photo holiday lights from a bridge are reflected in the canal waters in the Venice section of Los Angeles. Photo: Mark J. Terrill / AP
This Dec. 12, 2012 photo shows the holiday lighting display at the home of Norm and Michele Rados in Olmsted Township, Ohio. Rados said it takes four to five weekends of work to finish his annual holiday display leading up to the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Photo: Mark Duncan / AP
In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012, various holiday figures and colored lights fill the yard of a home on Hawks Nest Court in Cary, N.C. Photo: Gerry Broome / AP
In this Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012 photo, a woman walks along Natal Circle viewing Christmas lights in Gilbert, Ariz. Photo: Matt York / AP
In this Dec. 10, 2012 photo, Louise Beacham carries a ladder after putting up a Christmas wreath on the Windandsea Surf Shack on Windandsea Beach in San Diego. Originally constructed in the 1940s, the shack is a local landmark on this famous surfing beach. Photo: Gregory Bull / AP
In this Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012 photo, thousands of colorful lights and decorations fill the yard of this Montgomery, Ala., home. Photo: Dave Martin / AP
In this Dec. 10, 2012 photo, people walk past holiday decorations on homes on 34th Street in the Hampden neighborhood of Baltimore. Residents on the block decorate their rowhouses with over-the-top lights and decorations in the annual tradition known locally as the "Miracle on 34th Street." Photo: Patrick Semansky / AP
In this Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012 photo, Christmas lights decorate a home in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles. Photo: Mark J. Terrill / AP
In this Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012 photo, visitors take photos in front of homes decorated with thousands of holiday lights in Richmond, Va. Photo: Steve Helber / AP
In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012 a firehouse along the Embarcadero is lit up with Christmas lights in San Francisco. In the background is the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. San Francisco's fireboats are also housed at the station. Photo: Eric Risberg / AP
Christmas lights stretch across the street on Natal Circle Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012 in Gilbert, Ariz. Photo: Matt York / AP

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