Tell ya what: when I was a child/teenager, I lived near an American military base. It was a village on its own, partly military administration buildings, partly residential area. And they had a real American highschool. With those typical lockers in the corridors (no German school has them).
Anyway, back then the securitiy level was non existing and everybody could drive through the village. Shortly before Christmas, we always drove through the American village to have a look at the exuberant decorations of those strange Americans 
.
We were never big on putting up lights when I was a kid, probably because my Dad was a total klutz when it came to either yard work or home improvement. But there was a very wealthy neighborhood where people would compete to see who could have the biggest and gaudiest display. It got to be a very popular place the last few weeks before Christmas for people to just cruise around and say "can you
believe that?" Sometime during December, we'd all pile in the car and go gawk.
There was one house, though, that was unforgettable. They had a walled garden with palm trees and palmettos (this was in Florida), and they had a special little enclosure for a life-sized Nativity scene. Instead of the multicolored lights their neighbors used, this house had flood lighting that was blue-toned enough to look like moonlight, and for the last few weeks before Christmas they opened the garden to the public. It was so eerie, almost like you'd done some kind of time-travel.
I love gaudy Christmas decorations. They're a huge, colorful Whoopie cushion on the chair of Puritanism.
