Ran up the three flights of stairs to an office with some still remaining holiday lights and a plate of cookies.

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There was no Christmas wreath on the front door, no holiday lights.

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New York and Chicago, for example, are hugely popular at Christmas time, with outsize Christmas trees, glittering holiday lights, and decorated shop windows.

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The house first came to prominence in the early '70s, when a man named Bill Clot transformed his home in the Miami suburbs into an impressive Christmas display, a miniature village populated by mechanical Santas, reindeer, angels, penguins, villagers, elves and holiday lights.

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People don't realize that lead is all over their homes in a wide variety of products, particularly in things like extension cords and wire and cable, your holiday string lights when you're stringing them up this year, you'll probably see a warning label that says that the product contains lead, known to be a toxic chemical in the state of California.

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Take a trip around the neighborhood to see the Christmas lights, join a group of Carolers or watch a holiday movie around the fire.

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Overhead, holiday signs with minimalist, Target-like graphics of doves and presents blinked with LED lights like electronic snowflakes.

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