The Wrapping of the Trunks

In Houston, outdoor Christmas lights typically aren't put in trees; they're put around the trunks and branches of those trees. When I first came to Houston many years ago, I thought that this custom was completely bizarre, but with time, I came to appreciate the beauty of it, particularly when the trees with the light-wrapped trunks were live oaks (of which Houston has many) and when the lights were white. It takes a lot of lights to make this kind of display work, it's true, and putting them up is a bit labor-intensive. But it doesn't take much creativity, and when it is done correctly, the results are magnificent. I searched extensively online for a good picture to illustrate this phenomenon; but the only decent ones that I could find were on Flickr, and I'm too stupid to figure out how to copy those. So you'll just have to follow this link -- it's not the greatest display in the world, but it should give you some idea of what trees decorated in this manner can look like.