Thanksgiving weekend is referred to as the Christmas Extravaganza at our house. Some people wake up early on the day after Thanksgiving to shop at the stores with the big sales and the big crowds, and to those who enjoy that, it signals the beginning of the Christmas Season. At our house, we get up early, though not at 4am as would be required to participate in the shopping, to begin decorating.
The goal each year is to complete the decorating process by Sunday afternoon, which may not sound like that much of a challenge until you consider that we have 10 Christmas Trees, somewhere close to 20 wreaths on the outside of the house lights in the bushes and trees, and some sort of decoration in each and every room in the house. Fortunately, as the kids have gotten older, they have been more helpful in getting all of this done.
We also host a Santa Parade every year, we have Fire Trucks, Police Cars, local merchants and about 200 guests welcoming Santa to the house, where each child is given a gift while sitting on Santa Lap inside the house. this is a lot of fun, and my wife the "Elf in Chief" does a tremendous job in putting together and it is the highlight of Christmas for our family and many of our friends and neighbors as well.
I understand and appreciate the religious significance and tradition of Christmas as well. Being raised a catholic, and serving as a altar boy, attending a catholic university, the beauty of the real meaning of Christmas is as deeply ingrained in me, as "Charlie Brown's Christmas" and The Santa Clause".
During the Christmas season, every Sunday evening we pile the whole family into the car and drive through neighborhoods looking at decorations, joking and laughing, it is a real family bonding tradition. What causes me confusion is what the heck are people thinks with some of the decorations that they put out.
Specifically:
- What's with the Penguins? there from the wrong pole. I don't remember seeing them in any manger scenes, and other than the fact that they live in a cold place, how do they fit in?
- Red Lights...There seems to be a trend, at least where I live, of people putting all red lights on the outside of their house and in their yard. My wife says that it looks satanic, I said it looks like Christmas in Amsterdam (which may be their way of spreading Christmas Cheer).
- This is not a point of confusion, but I guess more of an observation, but the LED lights just don't do it for me. Every year they seem to get a little better than the year before as the technology matures, but the pale blue light just doesn't compare to the pin point white lights that I favor.
- Dalmatian? In our weekly sojourns there has been a disturbing trend of plywood cutouts of Walt Disney's Dalmatians in people's front yards. What does this have to do with Christmas?
- Finally, while I certainly appreciate people incorporating the religious roots into this increasingly secular holiday in the form of manger scenes, or other reminders of the real significance, but what I don't understand is why people feel that it is appropriate to put brightly lit crosses, or arrange lights in the shape of a cross on their roofs. Save it for Easter! Christmas is about the Birth of Christ, not the death and resurrection, which is what is symbolized by the cross. If this keeps up, I may be forced to protest in the form of putting a Star in my lawn during the Easter season.
