When I walk up to the car in the morning or evening, the lights in the cluster around the radio are on. I haven't used the remote or otherwise unlocked the door. Is this normal?

 

Nope.

 

Definitely nope.

You might try giving your HHR what we call a "Lobotomy". Disconnecting the NEGATIVE battery cable for 30 minutes can sometimes cure spurious/odd behavior on HHR's.

It sounds odd at first blush, but depriving the vehicle of power for a period of time will reset assorted modules to their defaults.

 

It appears the waterfall lighting(radio area) is on it's own time timeout circuit.
I observed the followings light timeouts on my HHR.
Odometer- 3 seconds
Waterfall - 12 seconds
Interior - 20 seconds starts fade out

I'm with 843de on trying the "lobotomy" reset. Sounds like the BCM or Body Control Module may be suffering a little hiccup.

 

Thanks to all. I turned auto lights off this am and the lights in question went off.

 

Auto lights don't function when the car is off, except to turn the lights off. They will go back to auto by default each ignition cycle. Unless you switch the light switch to on, best to just leave the light switch at auto position and let the computer do magic.

 

I did the disconnect for half an hour last weekend and problem solved.
Thanks for the help!

 

Oh, Oh, Oh Its Magic!! no really it must be, this remedy seems to clear up many a malady!