A little early? Probably not, now that I think about it.

I was startled to see this woman putting up her Christmas decorations this morning across the street from the Brookland Post Office.

But then I realized that, even though it feels like summer or early autumn here today, it really is less than two weeks until Thanksgiving and most people with serious outdoor Christmas displays like to switch on the lights on Thanksgiving.

And I recalled the couple who lived southeast of Sheridan, Ind., who used to have the biggest, craziest hodge-podge of religious and secular Christmas lights and displays in central Indiana. They began putting things out in late July or early August in order to be able to fire it all up on Thanksgiving. I did several stories about them for The Indianapolis News and was impressed to learn that the local electric utility put a heavy-duty transformer on the pole outside their house because they drew so much power that they blew up the standard-size transformer.

They had problems with kids stealing elements of their display, so they put animal traps in the yard to discourage theft. That was until the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department found out and made them get rid of the traps.