When you drive around the area in the day light hours you see deflated Santas, Reindeer, and Snowmen looking mighty dead on the lawns. You also see cheap, (I think)plastic snowmen, elves, Santas and Rudolfs looking rather garish standing out there in the cold light of day. When the sun goes down the dead Santas, reindeer and Snowmen get their re-inflated bodies up off the lawn and bask in the flood lights aimed at them from the near-by shrubs The plastic figures seem to be lighted from within and they don't look nearly so chintzy as they did. The nightly display of lighted icicles cascading over the eaves and in some cases the Santa complete with sleigh and reindeer cavorting on the roof tops remind us all that 'Tis the season'...
I've seen a few Nativity scenes on the lawns, competing with the mythical characters too. Nary an elf in my yard!
I do enjoy seeing the decorated trees and the brightly lighted wreathes and especially like the scent of pine trees. However; more and more artificial trees are on the scene these days. When I think of the excitement of shopping for the tree, bringing it home, getting out the ornaments and lights and doing all the tasks necessary to complete the tree decorating and then sitting down with just the lights of the tree to transform our living room into a magic place, I think about what the families are missing that stick plastic limbs into a plastic trunk or worse just pull the tree out of the basement or attic and strip it of its cover and plug it in and what to their wondering eyes should appear but a genuine plastic tree. Their kids will never know the special pervasive aroma of the tree in the house or the shock and awe of the tree crashing over to the floor, lights, ornaments, angel-topper and all, the daily sound of the needles dropping to the floor, the hope that the tree will not be needle-less by New Years. Taking the tree down, packing away the ornaments till next year, taking the bricks out that were helping the tree stay upright, the trail of icicles, needles etc. that were left on the carpet that persist in hangting on, sometimes till June. Still, wonderful memories!
I didn't take the lights off my fake ficus tree last year, I meant to, but...it was pretty easy to plug it in this week and pull out my blue ceramic tree and plug it in and guess what? With all the lights out except for the two imposters, my living room looks so festive and calm. I can enjoy that while I entertain my memories of Christmas's past! Ciao!
2 comments:
We are going to cut down our tree from a tree farm today in S. Indiana today and will spend the day decorating. We've been looking forward to it all week.
It doesn't seem like we should have 2 weeks of school left. Going until Dec 21 is different. It will be nice to have so much time afterwards I guess. Talk to you soon.
I don't have the best memories of Xmas tree shopping:
1) the goal was to get the best deal possible w/o being charged for larceny as part of the process
2) even after you got the tree, it sat out on the patio for 8-10 days
3) then when it was time to decorate it, people would complain if you didn't put the icicles on some certain way
4) it came down some 8 days later and was hauled unceremoneously to the street.
After all that scarring experience ... I don't even get an articifial tree. We open our presents under a table decorated w/ Xmas figurines (if I bothered to get them out of the attic). It's a better approach, I think we all can agree on that.
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