There are some communities that are bereft of lights, but there's also a ton of places that have pretty extravagant displays up. Then on top of it, there's the big elaborate displays at Merriweather.

There's actually a holiday light registry the county put up this year to help people find the houses with good displays. It's crowdsourced, so it only covers people who know to use it, but it's pretty cool that they're trying: https://data.howardcountymd.gov/HolidayLightsFinder_View/