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Please answer the following question to determine whether you should read this column: "At one time or another, I have kept my outdoor Christmas lights up all year round."

a. Yes.

b. No.

If you answered "a," then you should read this column because it will make you feel good about yourself. If you answered "b," then you should still read this column because it will give you a new way of looking of things. In other words, this is a column for everybody. I know! "Inclusive" is my middle name!

Meanwhile, I feel uniquely qualified to address this subject because when I was growing up our family once left the lights up for years. I'm not sure why. I think my dad threw them up one December and went "OK fine. I never want to do THAT again." So there they stayed, which is why I can now offer you seven good reasons for you to do the same thing. (You're welcome.)

So you don't have to rinse and repeat every year • The problem with taking your lights down is that when Christmas rolls around you just have to put them back up again. Annoying! So why not get a jump on next Christmas by leaving your lights up? Genius! Besides, Christmas is almost always around the corner. I've said it before and I'll say it again — as soon as the Fourth of July is over, you might as well put up your tree and turn on the Hallmark channel because Christmas will be here before you know it. What's the point of taking down the lights? Why not just go with Lights for Life?

So my mother won't get stuck on your roof • Here's the deal. If you DO take down your lights — which we eventually did — somebody's going to have to put them back up. Like my mother, for example. Because she figured my dad wasn't going to string the lights again — he'd already had that experience once — my mom decided to do it herself. She climbed up the ladder, summited our rooftop like Santa and his eight tiny reindeer and then went OH OOPS as she watched the ladder clatter to the ground below. I can't remember exactly how long she was up there. Fortunately we noticed she was missing sometime before the holiday season was over and helped her down.

So you can play football beneath the lights on a summer night • Did you ever want to play football beneath the shine of stadium lights when you were a kid? I did. The only problem was that I was a girl. And also 8 years old. But if your dad leaves the Christmas lights up year round, you can flip a switch and pretend you're playing in The Big House, baby. Or whatever.

So random people will show up on your front porch at night and sing Christmas carols in July • Sometimes after playing football on the front lawn in the summer, we'd leave the Christmas lights on. One night a group of strangers rang our doorbell and sang "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" to us. At least I think it was "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen." It could have been "Deck the Halls" now that I think about it.

So people can easily find your house • When guests ask for directions to your home, you can say, "Dudes. We're the ones with the Christmas lights."

So you can lower the expectations people have of you • If you're the kind of person who leaves your lights up all year, I can totally promise you that no one is going to ask you to be president of the PTA. For someone like me, that's a win.

So that there will be— you know — light • And in the end what's so bad about that anyway?

Ann Cannon can be reached at acannon@sltrib.com or facebook.com/anncannontrib.