(From the Janesville Messenger, 12-2-07)
Americans like Christmas. Christmas is family, and presents, and stockings hung by the fireplace, and good food and everything else that we like. We like it so much we want to celebrate it year-round. So every year, it seems, we push the official start of Christmas further and further up.
Remember when the official start of the Christmas season was the appearance of Santa at the very end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on TV? No more. I saw retail Christmas displays by summer this year. Santa arrives at stores and radio stations switch to all-Christmas music long before Thanksgiving. Some folks had their outdoor Christmas lights up – and lit – before Halloween this year. It’s a weird juxtaposition, ghosts and goblins and gravestones in yards alongside icicle lights. We should just call the season Hallowistmas. Several years ago, when Hollywood came out with “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” a film about Halloween spirits taking over Christmas from Santa Claus, they didn’t realize how clairvoyant they were regarding the entangling of the holidays.
In the meantime, Thanksgiving has almost become a forgotten holiday. You don’t see many decorations with turkeys and Pilgrims anymore. It’s a shame, because its purpose and meaning shouldn’t be forgotten.
I have always personally put my foot down about not decorating our home before Thanksgiving. This year, however, we had little choice due to a commitment we made to MACCIT, Milton’s chamber of commerce.
Each year, the chamber does a “Christmas house walk” fundraiser featuring historic homes with their Christmas decorations. For several years, we have been asked to be one of the featured homes. After finishing several remodeling projects, we decided the time was finally right to say yes. My wife loves to have our home decorated for Christmas anyway, so giving her carte blanche for this event is like giving liquor store keys to an alcoholic.
The event takes place on the issue date of this publication, Sunday, December 2. Normally, that’s about the time we’re getting our tree and starting the decorating. This year, it was the end date for completion, so our preparation began very early.
I stuck to my guns and refused to put the icicle lights on the front of the house until after Thanksgiving. But that made little difference when the front lamppost and railings were decked long before.
As for the inside of our house, every room – including bathrooms – has been magically transformed into a winter wonderland. You can’t swing a cat in here without hitting pine needles, a string of lights or a Santa. I feel like I’m living in a store. I have never been on the Milton Christmas Walk – it’s always a tough choice between that and NFL football – but I have been assured that we are not going over the top.
I did take umbrage with the placement of the four-foot wooden Santa carved by my father-in-law. He is patterned after the old European Father Christmas, with a much longer white beard and a pointy red hood. No offense to my father-in-law, whose carving skill was award-winning, but when this thing stares at you as you’re sitting in your living room, it starts to look less like Father Christmas and more like a leering, deranged gnome. Its eyes follow you; it’s Santa as creepy stalker. Fortunately, it has been moved to another part of the living room so I can relax again.
I am getting used to the look of my house, as well as the unusually early sweeping up of pine needles. But I have to admit that my wife did a pretty phenomenal job of decorating. She also did some very clever things with old childhood memorabilia that I’m sure will delight those who participate in the walk.
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