When we bought our first house in 2004 in Livermore, CA I FINALLY had a canvas of my own to paint with lights! And boy did I! Except for draping strings of lights down the walls on or the roof tiles, virtually every area of the house and yard was decorated.
I always like clean, straight, streamlined lighting. You won't find tons of inflatables or blow-molds cluttering my displays. But...that means more lights! And this was before LED lighting was prevalent or affordable. So these were old-fashioned incandescent lights. The mini lights and rope lights weren't too bad. But each of those large bright bulbs is a C9 7-watt bulb. So each 25-bulb string was 225 watts...and as you can see...I used A LOT of strings. So many in fact that I had to add 4-dedicated 15-amp circuits to power the over 5000 total watts used for the Holiday lighting. Towards the end of our time in CA, when utility rates were skyrocketing (along with the cost of living) we had a $600 Electricity bill for the month of Dec. Ouch!!
Ok...so maybe I had 1 inflatable: Santa in the sleigh suspended from the 1/2" steel cable running from the tree to the peak of the house where Rudolph was flagging him in for a landing with the airport style lighted batons.
When our son was born 2007, I was reminded why I love to do this. Watching the awe and wonder on his face as the lights sparkled in his eyes, reminded me of my childhood and took me back to the magical time I first fell in love with Christmas and LIGHTS!