Are Christmas lights a 'crime'?

Some enviromentalists, citing climate concerns, are handing out symbolic "violation tickets" to overly festive neighbors

While some think Christmas lights give the holiday a festive, even spiritual glow, environmentalists are condemning them as energy-wasters and an unnecessary source of greenhouse gas emissions. Through the SANTA initiative — Sustainability Action Network and Toy Alliance — the Energy Justice Network is urging ordinary citizens to download and issue "Christmas Police Violation tickets" to neighbors with overly exhuberant light displays. The citiations announce: "Your electricity consumption may be putting you on the Naughty List." Are SANTA violation tickets a cheerful reminder to live more greenly — or borderline obnoxious? (Watch a report on Paris' eco-friendly Christmas lights)

Christmas lights are killing the planet: Electricity-guzzling light displays don't symbolize holiday cheer, says Dan Clere in the Asheville Citizen-Times. "They represent birth defects, poisoned lakes ... and our continued stubbornness" to clean up our environment. It's time to take a stand against the "ignorance, waste, and hubris" that has made Christmas nothing but a "perverted consumer orgy."

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