“One day you’re eating turkey, the next thing you know your lords are a-leaping and your geese are a-laying.”
The morning is cold, a crisp cold. The sky is mostly gray with a slight tinge of blue. Today will be in the high 30’s so I’m glad for no wind. I have to go to the dump, the cold, always windy, Russian steppes dump.
When I was a kid, after Thanksgiving, when December rolled around, it was time to start thinking about Christmas. I’d spend hours going through the Sears catalog trying to figure out what I wanted. My choices changed every time I looked. I’d circle the gifts, always on the toy pages. I’d use a pencil and put my initials next to my choice. When I changed my mind, and I always changed my mind this early, I’d erase the circle. I never looked through the clothes pages. Christmas was not for clothes.
I remember the threat of Santa Claus. That threat took the place of, “I’m going to tell your father when he gets home.” My father just yelled. Santa put you on the naughty list and gave you coal. My mother was the best threat giver. She had us all scared that we’d find nothing under the tree. The closer we got to Christmas the better we were. The advantage went to my mother.
I’d watch my father when he’d decorate the bushes outside the house. The light bulbs were colored and large. Nobody used white lights back then, not even in windows. I remember the year of orange bulbs in the front windows, one in each side window and a five bulb candolier in the picture window. The candles were white plastic with fake drippings and were so light they had to be taped to the windowsill or they’d fall to the floor.
I’m amazed at the number of houses already decorated for Christmas. I’ll do mine when we get a warmish day. My neighbor’s house was lit up last night for the first time. He has white light wreaths in every front window. I drive slower this time of year so I can see all the lights, especially the lights shining through windows from the Christmas trees inside.
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December 1, 2024 at 1:25 pm
Count us among the decorated and the earliest we have ever done it. We fly home from Denver tomorrow to Christmas and are ready to entertain our granddaughters.
Perhaps the bigger question is when I will take it all down ! Once Christmas Day is done I am ready to go but then struggle with Mrs MDH who wants to leave it up longer
December 1, 2024 at 5:57 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I think we are all in a rush to decorate as Thanksgiving was so late this year. I have to wait for my tree as I don’t want it to dry up, but I have so many more decorations.
I’m with Mrs. MDH. I actually wait until Little Christmas. That seems just the right time. After all, the Magi didn’t want to arrive to find Mary, Joseph and the Babe he moved on Christmas night.
December 1, 2024 at 4:00 pm
Hi Kat,
I don’t know why Thanksgiving is so late this year. Regardless, it’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon. The sky is blue, the high temperature is 62°. And, I’m sitting on my patio because it’s going to get a lot colder before it gets warmer again.
This year Chanukah doesn’t begin until Christmas Day. This allows us to buy gifts during the big sales after the major winter Solstice holiday. I assume that next year we will have to hear from the orange pumpkin man, that once again there’s this imaginary war on Christmas. I will continue to wish people a happy holiday. Maybe everything will be so expensive, due to the tariffs he is threatening to impose, that the religious meaning of the holidays will return. Based on Black Friday’s sales figures, people are out buying gifts as if the world will end on January 20th. I fear that the world as we know it will begin to end.
I read an article this morning that said that authoritarian regimes take a while to change from democracies. Victor Orban took two years to kill Hungarian democracy. Because much of our government is decentralized, it will be much harder for the orange pumpkin to change the entire democratic system. Maybe by 2026, the MAGA nuts will realize what’s happening and vote with their brains instead of with their gonads. I can always hope.
December 1, 2024 at 6:14 pm
Hi Bob,
The first Thursday this month was the 7th which is why Thanksgiving was so late this year. It stayed cold all day.
People are spending now rather than later with the menace of the tariffs looming. Prices have already begun to climb.
The Solstice is on December 21st. I’m a bit confused as to how you can buy gifts on sale after the Solstice holiday. Without Mrs. Orange Pumpkin the White House won’t be decorated by the First Lady which is traditional. Mrs. Biden’s decorations were lovely. I still remember the horrid red trees from Melanie. She never gave a Christmas tour after that. I say Merry Christmas only because I always have.
I have the same hope you do. I hope the high prices from the tariffs, the loss of workers to harvest fruit and vegetables and the list of diminished tights will finally break the cult.