Red Christmas

For instance, Ani stops to let her brothers look at such a place because “the boys liked the front garden.” These places represent a lifestyle different from their own, so the children are drawn to them. 

The Christmas house is particularly attractive to the children, and the various decorations are described in detail:

The house glimmered as though it were studded with diamonds. A gaudy giant Santa perched on the garage roof, his sleigh hanging off the guttering, the reindeers’ antlers blinking candy stripes of red and white. Icing-sugar frost sprinkled the grass. The tiny front garden was mobbed with displays — an illuminated snowman, a waving penguin, a model train zipping around an ornamental pond. Even the Norfolk pine was festooned with giant red baubles and drooping lines of lights.

The mention of diamonds highlights the rich aspect of the house, and its many decorations. These are almost too many, as suggested by the expression “mobbed with displays.” 

The children are very impressed by the Christmas house ...