Every year after Christmas Eve mass, our family drives around our neighborhood admiring all of the beautiful lights, and at least once during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve Bill and I try to fit in a evening run to enjoy the lights again.  During my early morning runs in December, however; I’m disappointed that most of the lights have been turned off overnight (ours included), and my run isn’t as beautiful as it could be.

Last week while on one of those early morning runs, a great idea popped into my head!  Why not organize an evening run with my MRTT friends, where we could take a leisurely run through one of our neighborhoods?  Why not, indeed!

Eleven of us met at the same place our group meets super early one morning a week, and I was surprised to see the parking lot was almost full on a Tuesday evening at 7 PM.  It’s a huge parking lot, but it’s also a very large and extremely popular restaurant.  Before we started our run, we asked someone to take a few pictures of us in front of one of the two giant nutcrackers in front of the restaurant.

ChristmasLightsRunGroupWithNutCracker
Being the bossy person that I am, I asked for a second picture taken a little closer.  The poor guy just wanted to go into the restaurant to eat.  He probably needed a stiff drink after he left us!

ChristmasLightsRunGroupBeforeRun

We took off for our run, decked out in reflective vests, headlamp, and tail lights to make sure drivers could see us.  We headed down each side street, admiring the Christmas lights as we ran; and if we saw something extra pretty or unique, we snapped a picture.

ChristmasLightsRunThreeSnowflakes

A few times we posed for a group picture.  That would be me on the left who forgot to turn my headlamp off!

ChristmasLightsRunMidRunMyLightOn

A little farther along, we saw another particularly beautifully decorated house.  I suggested that we take a picture standing on the sidewalk, not on the lawn, but was overruled.  Unfortunately, the decorations are blocked by runners, but trust me, they were cute!  Luckily we weren’t arrested for trespassing, and were free to continue our run.

ChristmasLightsRunGroup

As we neared the end of our run, we saw Santa waving us over, so we decided to oblige him, and take some pictures.

ChristmasLightsRunBlowUpSanta

Erin gave him a high-five…

ChristmasLightsRunErinHighFivingSanta

And then Santa got a little too friendly with us when we posed with him for this picture.   Where is his right hand anyway?

ChristmasLightsRunGroupWithSanta

Before we returned to our cars we passed Santa on a motorcycle.  Had I seen him earlier in my run, I might have hitched a ride!

ChristmasLightsRunSantaOnMotorcycle

We completed our 4.5-mile run maintaining just under a 10:00 pace, stopping our watches often for pictures.

If you’ve never gone on an evening run to admire your neighborhood Christmas lights, I highly recommend that you do.  Be sure to take all the safety precautions you can, and make sure you’re lit up as much as the Christmas lights before you head out.  Have fun!

 

  • Questions:
  • Do you put up Christmas or Hanukkah lights in your yard?
  • Do you prefer morning or evening runs?
  • Do you and your family go to any of the huge Christmas light tours?