Your Lights Are On

It's happened. Christmas has oozed into January. I knew it had leaked backwards into October, but the January breach caught me off guard. It's almost the middle of the month and I'm still seeing wreaths, bows, reindeer, Santa, snowmen and lights. An occasional inflatable ornament too, although some lie flat. I can understand leaving the decor out through January first, or even the fifth if you want to do the epiphany thing, but what's up with lighting up your house on the eighth? Are they a head start for this year?
It's not that I hate decorations. It's a marginal utility thing. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are nice to look at too, but only for so long. I'd rather look at my own severed head with a bad haircut than see those two again.
The light thing puzzles me most. I understand leaving the ribbons and garlands up a bit long- it takes time to take that stuff down. But the lights? Leave them up all year if you want, but why, oh why are you turning them on in the middle of January?
If you leave your car lights on you get a buzzer or a voice telling you to turn them off. Maybe Christmas lights should be equipped that way. Turn them on off season and you get a recording:
Ding Ding! "It's January eighth and your lights are on."

*apologies to Karen Lise Klein for ripping off I mean borrowing her light photo trick.