Can I opt not to have Christmas lights between consecutive numbers?

[Mathew5000]

The rules state:

"When 2 adjacent numbers are consecutive, you can connect them with a string of Christmas lights."
source: https://boardgamearena.com/link?url=htt ... r&id=12770

It says "you can" not "you must". But it seems when I'm playing, the lights are strung automatically when I write in a consecutive house number. I was hoping to just forego the Christmas lights to get the estate plan where estates must have no lights strung. I think I should be able to, as the rules make the lights optional, just like I can choose not to build a park or a pool when I'm allowed to do so.

Cross-reference https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=102409 but I believe that's a different issue.

[Mathew5000]

And one other question. Regarding the city plan "Build 2 estates of 3 houses without any string of lights". Does an estate satisfy the criterion if there is no string of lights within the estate, but a house on the edge is connected by a string to a house not in the estate?

[Sunfall]

The rules state:

"When 2 adjacent numbers are consecutive, you can connect them with a string of Christmas lights."
source: https://boardgamearena.com/link?url=htt ... r&id=12770

It says "you can" not "you must". But it seems when I'm playing, the lights are strung automatically when I write in a consecutive house number. I was hoping to just forego the Christmas lights to get the estate plan where estates must have no lights strung. I think I should be able to, as the rules make the lights optional, just like I can choose not to build a park or a pool when I'm allowed to do so.

Cross-reference https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=102409 but I believe that's a different issue.

I think it's a problem with the translation from the original French. The designer chimes in here:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/257170 ... 0#41973580

and makes it clear that the intent is, when you write an adjacent number, you must draw the string of lights. It is not optional.