Can too much holiday spirit land you on the naughty list?

Daniel Island has done an excellent job achieving aesthetic success throughout the year, including during the holiday season. 

 

The buildings adjacent to Seven Farms Drive and Island Park Drive are donned with white lights and a wonderful tree at Guggenheim Plaza. In addition, many homeowners avail themselves of this opportunity to stuff as many holiday figures and scenes on their property as possible. Given the vast number of children and visitors to Daniel Island, these decorations serve a wonderful purpose and add to the allure of Daniel Island.

 

With that said, is there such a thing as too many decorations? Here comes the lawyer part – “let’s look at the rule.” Article 5.2 of the Second Amended and Restated Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions for the Daniel Island Residential Zone provides the property owner “shall maintain [their property]… in a manner consistent with the Community-Wide Standard, the Design Guidelines and… [you get the point].” 

 

In other words, keeping your decorations within the norm of what is around Daniel Island is probably sufficient. However, I learned early in life – “just because someone else does it, doesn’t make it right.”  

 

Thus, I recognize my comment above about sticking with what you see is fundamentally awkward. Plus, let’s face it, Daniel Island is home to some very enthusiastic and adventurous people, so we all know someone will always toe-the-line of too much. 

 

Therefore, some thoughts about “in a manner consistent with” the community standard may be helpful.

 

Typically, the time of year for house and yard decorations related to the year-end holidays is from Thanksgiving to New Year, fully recognizing those soft book-ends have seemingly been extended each year. The next obvious decoration faux pas could be the demonstration of excessive lights or noise (or both). The always applicable rules about being a good neighbor and not creating a nuisance for other neighbors or the community are not suspended this time of year on the account of “good cheer.” 

 

Therefore, if decorations are keeping the neighborhood up at night or attracting a wake of buzzards, then some consideration is probably due and a more subtle demonstration is appropriate.  

 

Lastly, I thought of some additional considerations that may keep your holiday spirit in good standing with the neighbors, including the size of displays and the hours of  “operation.”

 

In the unfortunate event you are the neighbor having your holiday impacted by a neighborhood decoration, then an initial approach to the overzealous neighbor may be a good starting point. Of course, if that fails or just isn’t a good idea for other reasons (which we completely understand), then reaching out to the Daniel Island Property Owners’ Association is the next logical step. If this process does not yield any results, then presumably you are beyond the holiday season and may have a larger issue on your hands. 

 

For example, the year-round yard display of Cousin Eddie with an adult beverage in one hand and sewer line in the other (which is a classic).

 

We wish everyone a wonderful holiday!