The day is fast approaching when I will have to turn in my member’s card for the International Brotherhood of Grinches. The pressure from my wife to decorate the outside of the house has now been compounded by questions from Griffin and Gage as to why we don’t have outdoor Christmas lights of our own. My mother has not been helping, with her offers of left over lights from their own decoration efforts.
I long for the earlier days when I could misdirect the young ones by saying things like, “Don’t you think it’s cooler to look at our neighbors decorations?” And, “Which decorations on our street do you think are the best?” Now, they won’t stray from the point that we are one of the few homes left with no visible holiday adornments.
It’s not that I hate Christmas decorations, by any means. I simply don’t want to spend the time, money, and effort of draping the house with lights that will be turned on for 14 or 15 evenings at best. I don’t understand what drives our neighbors to invest so much in their own displays, unless it would be competition with the family next door.
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| Christmas Deer |
In my experience, these things evolve over the years. Many that began as tasteful and elegant displays of holiday cheer now simply look like Christmas threw up on the neighbor’s lawn. They are a hodge-podge of light strands and plywood Santa cut-outs that slowly but surely multiply until you start to wonder if they are massing for an invasion of your own property. And what’s with the deer? Is this going on all over the nation, or is it just a southern thing?
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| Sad Little Christmas Tree |
I’m sad to say that we have already taken our first foray into this mad world of competitive decorating. Tamara bought a sad little sprig of a lighted tree and stuck it on our front porch. I think we’ve turned it on about three times. A disheartening part is knowing that each step taken down this road of decoration can never be taken back. We will no longer be “that family who only has a wreath on the door.” We are now “the family who only has a wreath on the door and a sad little Christmas tree in front of it.”
I know that many of you guys out there have experienced the same thing with your families. My question to you: Is there any hope that I can hold out a little longer, or is it time to throw in the poinsettia embroidered towel?
Time to throw it in! Charles enjoys the outside lights. Maybe I should say, Charles enjoys looking at the outside lights and knows they won't put themselves up, so he does it for them and he loves us. :) We started with two deer (because he likes moose and we could only find reindeer) and now we have two reindeer, a sled, lit garland around both doors, a Christmas tree (that doesn't light up any more after one whole season, not sure we got our $19.99 out of it), poinsettias in the front pots, various signs wishing visitors a Merry Christmas, Warm Winter Wishes, and look out for SNOW! Last year we added the new lights around the house. We will wait for the "after" sales to see if we are adding the angel or nativity scene that we like. We might actually have something that truly relates to Christmas in our yard. :) All this started years ago when we bought a house, Dex was 3 and Alex was a baby. I think you have gotten by a few more years, so throw in the poinsettia towel and get up on that roof!
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I forgot...two wreaths and candy cane striped front columns!
ReplyDeleteI protest to my Black Friday find being named a "sad little sprig of a tree"! - Tamara
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