I’ve always felt one of the true measures of how people feel about the economy in any given year is the number of houses with Christmas lights. When people feel good about their economic situations, you see a lot of lights; likewise, if there appears to be less Christmas lights than usual, you can tell people are feeling apprehensive about their situations and the future. Scientific? Not by any means. But I think there’s at least a shred of truth in it.

This year there are a lot of houses with Christmas lights around here – in some cases, whole subdivisions are lit up in fantastic displays of light. Of course, the phony snow and snowmen displays look a little stupid, but they’re out there in spades this year for sure.

My guess is, gas prices and the housing aren’t stopping people from feeling pretty good about themselves and their financial situations.

Of course, the drop in real estate values isn’t nearly as bad around here as in other areas of the Valley or other areas of the country, so that may have something to do with it.