Christmas in February? Come on, folks -- let's turn off those lights

Christmas in December? Appropriate.

Christmas in July? A sales stunt, but OK.

But Christmas in February? Come on.

It never fails. They shine like lighthouses in a foggy harbor. Blinking, flashing, twinkling. Yes, Christmas lights still burning 40 days after the gifts were opened. Hanging from gutters, looping around windows and dangling from the tip of the pine tree on the front lawn. You can spot them a mile away. The beautiful but very stale decorations haunt like the Ghost of Christmas Past.

What is up with these people?

Are they just too lazy to pull the strings off the leafless branches? Doubt it. They weren't too lazy to put the lights up last November. Even if sloth was the reason, then why flip the switch? Why have them on?

What's the psychology behind this? Why are these lights still twinkling now?

Can't they let go of the season? Is that magical feeling too powerful? Maybe they are getting an early jump on next year. Maybe in the same way some folks like to be the first on the block to decorate, others take pride in being the last to unplug.

The earliest version of Christmas lights were candles glued to the branches of Christmas trees. Later, in 1882, Edward Johnson, an inventor at the Edison Electric Co., was the first to illuminate a tree using electric bulbs. He might not mind seeing these off-season displays.

Then again, it might be the holdouts just think the multicolored glow is pretty. A way to brighten up the dark days of a miserably cold winter. Only they know for sure.