Every December, it?s harder and harder to keep up with the Clauses. Consider the Wills home in Mendota Falls, Minnesota, where more than 150 candy canes light up the exterior of the house. Or Bull Run Park in Centerville, Virginia, which features 200 over-the-top holiday lights displays stretching over two miles. And down in Marble Falls, Texas, just about every house in town is a holiday lights extravaganza (including the place with a twirling lariat that spells out ?MERRY TEXMAS Y?ALL?) Okay, so maybe some holiday light shows get a little out of hand, but you have to appreciate the time, work, and effort (not to mention expense) that goes into installing 600,000 bulbs over a 50,000-square-foot property (as in the case of the Clot family of Pinecrest, Florida). And don?t forget the imagination and technical wizardry of homeowners who have created a school of dancing fish wearing Santa hats, or a garden of computer-controlled poinsettias that appear to grow out of the ground and blossom in glorious color, or illuminated toy trains that run on 700 feet of track.

HOLIDAY LIGHTS! is a high-wattage celebration of the wildest and most wonderful examples of a modern tradition. The 250 full-color photographs are spectacular, but don?t stop at the pictures. The accompanying essays reveal the titanic amount of hard work and dedication required to install these displays.

Make this Christmas one your family will remember forever by knitting Christmas stockings for the entire clan. The 19 fun, simple-to-follow patterns presented here make it easy for even first-time knitters to create beautiful stockings ? not to mention delightful knit and felt ornaments for the Christmas tree.

And Knit Christmas Stockings! is not only fun and easy to use, it?s also economical. With single-pattern prices from $3.50 to $9, a knitter buying 19 patterns could spend over $150! But with Knit Christmas Stockings! knitters get 19 great patterns for just $14.95.As with all the books in Storey?s die-cut Knit series, this book is written with the first-time knitter in mind. All knitting instructions are in plain English ? no esoteric terms or indecipherable abbreviations. And if a project calls for an unusual technique, the instructions are accompanied by detailed illustrations of the process.

This is a glitzy tribute to maverick homeowners, entire neighborhoods, even whole towns that pump up the wattage of the holiday spirit by installing elaborate light displays. The book includes an entire chapter of detailed how-to, as well as itineraries to eye-popping displays all over the country.

Includes a 19-city illustrated itinerary: Southern California (Orange County, San Diego, San Fernando Valley), Seattle, Denver, Nashville, Atlanta, Texas (Austin, Dallas/Ft. Worth), Florida (Miami, Orlando, St. Petersburg), Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Louis, Chicago, Washington D.C., New York City, Boston. Many other locations in the U.S. and Canada noted in the appendix.