The Chicago suburb of Lincolnwood has a well-earned reputation as going whole hog -- and then some -- when Christmas rolls around. Leah, Dick and I tool around this sometimes-tony suburb for a look at ways to dress up a McMansion for the holidays.

As you'll hear, the displays range from the simple to the complex. Many feature those inflatable snow-globe displays that have been on sale at every drug and discount store. And some even continue to trot out deacdes-old illuminated Santa Clauses one given out as premiums to customers of Polk Bros., once a major appliance store.

The City of Chicago itself doesn't really go in for a municipal display, although they do run a traditional German Christmas market of sorts in Daley Center. I'm happy to report that my hometown of Denver continues to pull out all the stops in its annual makeover of the City and County Building into a time-exposure Kodak Moment.

To see the 2006 Denver display, check out these excellent images on Flickr.

Denver's been doing its Christmas display as long as I can remember -- and long before that. I hope to visit the display when I'm in the Mile High City in a couple of weeks, assuming the city's continuing the tradition of keeping the lights up until the end of the National Western Stock Show.

I grew up in Denver's western suburbs, and my secular humanist parents never really had much of a problem with the display. What did torque their jaws, however, was that giant illuminated crucifix on the mountain west of town. "What's next?" Mom liked to ask, "a giant neon Coors beer sign?"

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