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Four Logan teenagers, two boys and two girls, turned themselves in at the police station late Tuesday, confessing that they wrote and delivered threatening letters to 14 homeowners displaying Christmas lights.
The teenagers on Saturday allegedly taped threatening notes to the front doors, warning that the homes would be burned down if outdoor-decoration lights were not turned off until Dec. 14.

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"This is what happens when you've got the safest community in America," Thompson said, referring to the designation announced Nov. 21 by Morgan Quitno Press. "Something like this gets people scared."

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Yay! I love Logan (my college town).
 

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Posted by Uprooted (Member # 8353) on :
 
*looks around suspiciously*

King of Men . . . you haven't been in Utah lately, now have you?
 

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Posted by smitty (Member # 8855) on :
 
I only hate the lights I have to put up! Stupid tangled, won't roll or wrap well for storage, broken bulbs in the hand, strings out for no reason icicle lights! I think I hate them more knowing I have to put them up tomorrow.....
 

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Posted by littlemissattitude (Member # 4514) on :
 
Actually, the lights are one of the few aspects of Christmas that I like. Hate the songs. Hate the enforced cheerfulness. Hate the commercialization. But I really like the lights.
 

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Posted by luthe (Member # 1601) on :
 
Do you like shiny objects too?
 

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Posted by BaoQingTian (Member # 8775) on :
 
katharina...It's my college town too (and where I met my wife). There's a lot of things I like about Logan--especially the lights on mainstreet at Christmas-time.
 

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Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
 

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Hate the enforced cheerfulness.

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I must have missed that. Who's enforcing it?
 

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Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
 
I love Logan too...it was my college town for a year!
 

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Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :
 
I like that commercial for some camera or something where it opens with the ghetto cruisers driving past - and looking wistfully at - a home with Christmas lights.
 

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Posted by Steev (Member # 6805) on :
 
It was my collage town for erm...11 years.
 

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Posted by aragorn64 (Member # 4204) on :
 
Wow, a ton of people went to USU! I actually live here in Logan, and have my entire life. That's pretty awesome...(er, not the thing about the lights, of course.)
 

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Posted by BGgurl (Member # 8541) on :
 
"They were shocked when they started to see the reaction of the media and the community in general."

Well, I think it's pretty stupid that they didn't at least expect something like that.

Anyway, the only Christmas lights I hate are the ones that my neighbors leave up until March
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
My dad leaves his up all year round. (But they're only plugged in from the end of November through January 6.)
 

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Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
 
I hate the fact that shopping for normal things in a regular store becomes so much more of a hassle. They need to make so much room for the seasonal stuff and bright shiny objects that something has to give up space. Usually, it's something I waited too long to purchase, so it's my own fault, but it really is a pain. I need stuff, just not Christmas stuff.
 

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Posted by Anna (Member # 2582) on :
 
I don't really like the holidays lights either because it's a lot of energy spoiled and it's not as if we had that much stock we don't have to worry about the folowing years.
 

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Posted by Steev (Member # 6805) on :
 
I would like to be able to use Christmas lights for things other than Christmas. But they are really hard to find in stores in June.
 

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Posted by theCrowsWife (Member # 8302) on :
 
So buy some now and save them for June? Or better yet, buy some immediately after Christmas so you get a better price.

When I was in high school, my best friend made a really neat project out of white Christmas lights and clear plastic cups. She poked holes in the bottoms of the cups so that there would be a single light in each cup, then stapled the cups together to form a sphere. It was really pretty hanging in a darkened room.

--Mel
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 

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But they are really hard to find in stores in June.

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You shop the wrong stores, bud! Plus, you know, buy them once when they're on sale in Jan. and you can use them year-round.
 

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Posted by Steev (Member # 6805) on :
 
Yeah I know. It's just that I don't think of it until I need them. It's an impulse purchase at that point.
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
That's where you have to know what stores to go to.
 

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Posted by Steev (Member # 6805) on :
 
Well what stores do I go to?
 

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Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
 
For me, the worst part is not the lights, it's the office "Christmas, oh, excuse me, I mean, Holiday Party". That's where I was earlier this evening. The worst part -- everyone pretending to have a good time so that the boss will think we have a good attitude and team spirit.

The best part -- seeing who embarrasses themselves with too many trips to the open bar or with inappropriate ho'-like outfits. (There was a doozy tonight! Let's just say that if her clothing accidentally caught fire, and she suffered burns because of it, she would be just fine -- only a small area would be affected.)
 

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Posted by Heffaji (Member # 3669) on :
 
I'm sorry, but everyone is so far wrong about the worst aspect concerning the holidays. Any person who has ever worked in retail during the season will say it is the constant playing of Christmas music throughout the day. I am not looking forward at all to going to work when I get home at break. That means I'll have to start pondering again exactly what are

"the tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago."
 

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Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
 
I think it's telling that the teenagers turned themselves in.
 

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Posted by ambyr (Member # 7616) on :
 
They blast Christmas music in my Metro station in the morning.

I'm not opposed to Christmas music in principle. I'm sure there's good Christmas music out there. I'm just very, very sure that what they're playing isn't it.

And even if it was, I'm not sure the crack of dawn is the time to hear it.
 

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Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
 

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Originally posted by Heffaji:
I'm sorry, but everyone is so far wrong about the worst aspect concerning the holidays...it is the constant playing of Christmas music

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Well what stores do I go to?

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While the idea or the image of a Santa Claus dates back to the 1800s, a rendering of the man with rosy cheeks and a big red coat didn't receive widespread exposure until Coca-Cola began using it in the 1920s, according to Gillespie's research.

Parents soon started telling their children that Santa Claus is real and that he brings Christmas presents via a home's chimney. Telling children an outright lie and possibly violating issues of trust and honesty irk Gillespie.

"I'm not sure why anyone would want to take that risk," he said

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I'll admit that in my youth my family qualified and the people giving us presents treated us like pond scum.

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I'm so sorry.
 

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Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
 

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The whole "Santa Claus" thing is what I would call forced cheerfulness.

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Maybe it is just how I feel. I would probably skip the holiday and I don't seem very cheerful and so everyone else celebrating makes it feel like forced cheerfulness?

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Well what stores do I go to?

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Visit Long Grove, IL, and go to the Pine Cone Christmas Shop. Open all year round.

And then stop in the Apple Haus for brown bag apple pie, or the apple/blueberry coffee cake. Mmmm.
 

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Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :
 
Crow's Wife- How do you crochet snowflakes? I'm just learning to crochet and am fairly solidly at the scarf stage. Is it something I could do?
 

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Posted by Theaca (Member # 8325) on :
 
Ohhh, crocheted snoflakes, snoballs, and angels are so fun to make. Then you stiffen them with fabric stiffener or sugar. Here's a good picture of a nice one: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CrochetSnowflakes/
 

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Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
 

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I don't really like the holidays lights either because it's a lot of energy spoiled and it's not as if we had that much stock we don't have to worry about the folowing years.

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Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head:

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Maybe it is just how I feel. I would probably skip the holiday and I don't seem very cheerful and so everyone else celebrating makes it feel like forced cheerfulness?

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I can see how that could be called encouraged cheerfulness, but force or enforced? That seems too much of a hyperbole.

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Well, I'm not being very cheerful, so it certainly isn't forced in that manner.

Actually, now that I think about it, I've just had a series of very miserable Chirstmases in which some were devoid of any celebration at all. Last year's, for example, was probably the worst. This one isn't looking so bad, so I suppose I could lighten up a little bit.
 

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Posted by sweetbaboo (Member # 8845) on :
 
Theaca, that looks pretty difficult. I ,too, am at the scarf stage in crocheting but that looks kind of intimidating. Are there instructions for it?
 

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Posted by theCrowsWife (Member # 8302) on :
 
Well, you would want to do snowflakes using cotton thread, because yarn doesn't stiffen all that well. That said, the larger sizes of thread aren't much smaller than sports weight yarn, so it isn't really that much of a jump. The main difference between yarn and thread is tension: with yarn you want to crochet fairly loosely so that the natural spring of the yarn will make the fabric stretchy. Thread doesn't have any give, so you need to crochet fairly tightly or else it will just look loose and messy.

All snowflakes are crocheted in rounds instead of rows, so you might want to do a few granny squares first just to get used to working in rounds.

I've used the Leisure Arts book "99 Snowflakes" and most of the patterns are fairly easy. The main difficulty, imo, is that many of the patterns have a lot of picots, and they can be annoying if you're just learning. You can also find free patterns online, although they aren't always written in an easy to understand way.

The instructions will give a thread/hook size recommendation, but you can always work them in larger or smaller sizes. The smaller your thread, the daintier the snowflakes, but ones done in thick thread are nice, too. Choose a hook that's large enough that the thread doesn't slide off, but small enough that the stitches don't look large and loopy. I have a chart somewhere that suggests the proper sized hook for a given thread size; I can look it up for you if you want.

That was probably way more information than you wanted. *embarrassed grin* I've done a fair bit of research/practice with thread crochet, and I'm always happy to see crocheters try it out.

If you're still interested, I could probably find a free pattern online that would be easy to work.

--Mel
 

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Posted by Anna (Member # 2582) on :
 

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house christmas lights

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Rumors that the pranksters left plates of cookies along with the threatening notes are erroneous, said Logan Police Lt. Richard Salvesen.

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Originally posted by blacwolve:
Hmm, it sounds a little too advanced for me. I've never successfully done a granny square, although I've tried several times. I'm waiting until I get home and can get a friend to walk me through how to follow the pattern, I get all turned around and confused.

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