I wonder if it is just a sign of the times. This year I have noticed that fewer – considerably fewer – houses where we live are adorned with outdoor Christmas lighting. This is something one sees a lot in the US (and Canada too, I remember) but is much rarer in England. Even after several years living on the west bank of the big pond, I still view decorations like that as a novelty.
So where are they this year? You’d have to be living in a cave not to know that we are about to enter (maybe already have) a recession, and for just about everyone except bank executives (who are using billions from the government bail-out to continue to pay themselves hundreds of millions in salaries and bonuses, and that’s just wrong!) so maybe ordinary folks, like thee and me, are deciding that they don’t want to add to their December utility bills this year. That makes perfect sense, but it’s rather a shame. There are just over 100 row houses, in blocks of five, in the complex where we live, and every year we could count on dozens of them brightening up the long nights with decorative displays, from the sublime (a little nativity scene by the front door) to the ridiculous (cascades of multicoloured flashing lights from roof peak to lawn on every exterior surface). This year I have counted four houses, and those displays are somewhat muted.
We do our bit, more for form’s sake than any Christmassy fervour. My wife, whom I have often accused of having a very benevolent attitude to our local utility company, to the extent that she loves to pay them money for services that we do not really need (like illuminating for hours rooms that are empty) though she denies it (“No, I don’t like them. I hate those bastards!”), once suggested we string lights from the edge of our roof, down our front wall. Since I knew who would be expected to string the lights up, and since we don’t own a ladder, that idea withered on the vine, and instead we have on our upstairs porch a rotating light ball and an artificial illuminated Xmas tree, bought in a weak moment at Lowes a few years ago, which , when you plug it in, changes colour from pale blue to grey and back to pale blue again, looking for all the world like the ghost of Christmas trees past making an appearance from beyond the veil. At least it is distinctive. No one else around here has one of those. Apart from anything else, it’s a very useful landmark to describe when telling pizza delivery people how to find our front door.
I don’t go a bundle on Christmas. I tell people that Scrooge is my hero, and I certainly don’t buy into any of the religious side of it. But…. (there had to be a but) Christmas is a milestone on the road to the end of the year. Decorations are part of the process of rounding out the twelfth month, and I have to admit I miss them. Times may be hard, and may well get harder, but walking through our complex in the evenings and seeing nothing but darkened house fronts just rubs it all in. It’s as though people are giving up without a fight. A few lights would make all the difference.
Anyway, my dear fellow bloggers, whether your house is dark or illuminated, whether you will celebrate lavishly or frugally, may I take this opportunity to thank you for dropping in here from time to time over the past year, and I do hope to enjoy your company again in 2009. I hope you’ll be making merry this week, and I wish all of you the very happiest of Christmases and a peaceful and successful New Year.
.