It's been a month now. Don't you think
they should start to come down soon?
While out running early in the morning
I happened to pass probably a half dozen homes spread throughout the
city of Marquette, homes that proudly had Christmas trees in their
front windows. Not only did they have the trees still proudly
displayed, but they had them fully lit up, which is why I noticed
them in the first place.
Even though Christmas was a month ago
today.
Now I'm not here to rain on anyone's
Christmas parade, especially after what I wrote on Tuesday. But
we're now just a couple of weeks away from Valentine's Day, which is
itself just a month away from St. Patrick's Day, which is then just
two weeks away from Easter. Shouldn't it be time to look forward to
what's coming up instead of still celebrating that which has been?
Or am I looking at this the wrong way?
I know there are people who just love the Christmas holidays. There
are people who get their decorations out right as the leaves change
colors, and there are people who start to listen to Christmas songs
while the rest of us are looking forward to “It's The Great
Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”. I get that. I get that feeling of
anticipation for your favorite time of the year. I do the same
myself when the weather first hints at warmth and I start looking
forward to summer. But once October rolls around I know it's time to
put away the flips flops and beach gear and haul out the winter
stuff. I don't want to, and wish I didn't have to, but I do it.
And maybe that's how the people with
their Christmas trees up still feel.
I remember a phone call I took on the
air a decade or so ago, when somehow the topic of Christmas lights
came up. The caller complained about her neighbor, a gentleman in
the city of Marquette who still had his outdoor lights up and turned
on every evening. Mind you, this was in May, if I recall correctly,
and she was wondering if he was ever going to take them down. So I
guess I'm not alone in this. There probably SHOULD be a limit to how
long you have your Christmas stuff up.
Maybe a month's okay, though. Maybe
the people who still have the trees up are basking in the afterglow
of the holidays. Maybe they had a really great Christmas season, and
don't want it to end. Maybe they had family members who couldn't
make it home for the actual holidays and are just getting around to
celebrating them now. In that case, we'll cut them some slack, and
let things be, at least for now.
However, if I go running a month from
today and the tress are still up and lit...well, then, we may have to
revisit this discussion. And maybe—just maybe—we won't be quite
as understanding.
We'll have to see.
8-)
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