Christmas lights as seen in panorama from the corner of Grafton and Wicklow.

Frank McNally listed “23. Christmas lights in early November” as something he hates about Dublin (Irish Times, 15 November 2012).

Now, normally I bemoan Christmas selling creeping into every moment of fall, too.  But I have to admit that I’m taken by the holiday lights on Grafton Street.

Henry Street (the bustling pedestrian shopping avenue in Dublin that I’ve posted pictures of so many times before) isn’t yet illuminated. And it seems quite dreary by ten 0’clock in the evening. Not so on Grafton!

In these dark days of fall–when the Dublin sun sets around 4:30 pm–it’s fun to bask in the glimmer of lights on Grafton and Wicklow.