Unless you have been hiding in a cave over the last few weeks, you may have noticed that things have gotten more festive all of a sudden. The annual homage to retailing, also known as Christmas, arrived with a bang before Halloween had even scared us with the potential for dental disaster, assaulting our senses once again with the superficial reason for the season.
Don't get me wrong - I am not opposed to the superficial reason. I like giving and getting as much as anyone, and I love the displays and ornaments and clothing everywhere. I would, however, like to see Christmas returned to its rightful place - a holiday of grace following the holiday of thanksgiving for all the bounty bestowed upon us, but I think I'm in the losing faction on that one. Retailers live and die by the holiday season, and it's no surprise that they are pushing it earlier every year.
Yes, Christmas is big and extremely vital business, however much the aggressively non-celebrating may want to believe otherwise. Without the out of control spending that occurs in the last two months of the fourth quarter, most retailers wouldn't be around for you to shop at the other ten months of the year, so scoff at your own risk.
It's not only in gifts that Christmas has become the retailing bonanza of the year. All the other accouterments that accompany the festivities need to be bought and put to use - clothing, food, employee holiday parties and Christmas bonuses to be bestowed, trees and ornaments and, of course, the decorations.
Ah. The decorations. The centerpiece of the holiday spirit. Red and green and lights and tinsel and sparkle all around. The decorations make or break your holiday presentation, and they are different and unique for each family, which is what makes them so interesting.
It is the outdoor Christmas displays that capture my attention each year, because I think they reveal much more about the home and family being represented than the usual, everyday landscaping. Most people conform to what is expected of them in their own particular neighborhood for the everyday appearance, and there is, in the end, very little to distinguish one house from the next. But with Christmas decorations, people allow their real personalities to burst through for that brief time every year, and I think we are allowed a small glimpse of the child still living within.
It is endlessly entertaining to me to see garish "Christmas Vacation" style displays next door to a home decorated only with netted white mini-lights, carefully laid over the well manicured bushes with military precisionS. I can't help but wonder about the people living inside, with such opposite world views being exposed for everyone to see.
I also wonder each year whether families correspond with their decorations in the way I think they should. Do the houses with the boisterous lighting displays also hold boisterous families within? Do the prim and proper netted bushes with their perfect twinkling lights reveal a prim and proper family that remembers to remove their shoes at the door, and would never tolerate a Jack Russell Terrier tearing around the inside of their house? (Just for the record, if you are that kind of family, don't get a Jack Russell Terrier, because they are not for you.)
Or perhaps the netted white twinkle lights reveal a family that wants to join the festivities, but simply doesn't have adequate time to do a big display, and the nets are quick and easy, and it's the best they can do. Perhaps the yards and houses covered in lights are covering up for the lack of family spirit at other times of the year, and are over-compensation for what is missing inside.
I wonder sometimes, are the over the top displays done tongue in cheek? Or do those families just get carried away with the spirit of the holiday, and lose themselves in the enjoyment of it all? Either way, I think it would be a lot of fun to spend the time with them while they work. I imagine Christmas carols wafting out a slightly opened window, and hot chocolate and cookies waiting inside for the cold and hungry decorators.
Of course, if tacky Christmas is your goal, it can be achieved with a minimal display as easily as going over the top, depending on the execution. It's like the picture you don't want to be in - if you stand there showing how much you despise being in it, you are the one who ends up looking stupid.
Most families seem to be a mixed bag, and the outdoor displays are probably the work of only one or two family members most of the time. In our case, we have one who couldn't care less, one who does it because someone else will make sure life is not worth living if the mission isn't carried out, and one who lives for Christmas all year through, and grieves the lack of festive lighting adorning our abode, no matter how much is out there, with vociferous complaints.
So each year, I dutifully wait through the warm fall until the coldest day of the year, and then trudge outside to string lights on as few bushes as possible to get the job done, so I can run back inside where the temperature is more to my liking. Why do I wait until it's cold? Well. Isn't that an interesting question that isn't going to get answered?
I will go festive sometime this weekend, because the Christmas lover is coming home soon, and I have to have things in place for her to feel shock and awe when she drives into the neighborhood. It is something she looks forward to all year, and it seems like the least I can do. I would do almost anything for her, so throwing a few lights on bushes isn't really that great of a sacrifice.
But I draw the line at lights on the roof. Given my klutzy nature, I'm surprised she would even consider that a possibility, since I'd probably get tangled in the string and fall off the ladder. Lights on the roof has been a goal of hers for a long time, unfortunately. So each year she complains that my wimpy bush displays are inadequate, failing dramatically on her festivity scale.
One year, awhile back, we were driving around enjoying the many festive displays, and she made note of each home that had lights on the roof. She was thrilled anew each time she spied one, and pointed out how much more exciting those homes looked with the outline of lights against the dark sky.
Finally, she turned to me and said, "Why don't we have lights on the roof?" Well. That's awkward. How do you explain to Miss Christmas that you don't want to because it's just too much work?
In a brainwave, I carefully explained that lights on the roof is a "dad" job, and we did not have a dad available, so therefore, no lights on the roof. She was little, and I thought that would hold her, despite my constant preaching that anyone can do anything they really want to. Yes. I am a hypocrite sometimes.
But she was always one to press forward, and she had to go and point out the obvious. "Mom, we have never had lights on the roof." Since that was true, I told her she would have to take that up with someone else, because I'm not the dad, and it wasn't my job. She thought about it for quite awhile as we continued driving around, then finally offered up this statement of love that I will never forget. "You deserve to have someone who will put lights on your roof."
Here's wishing you a heart melting moment of your own this week. Don't forget to treasure them when they come, because they will sustain you when you need it most. And here's wishing you lights on your own roof this holiday season!
