Should it be green or brown?
Unless something radically changes in our weather forecast in the next few days (the forecast that calls for sun & temps in the 40s this weekend) it looks like those of us living in the city of Marquette will be having our fourth snow-free Christmas in the past dozen years this year.
That led to me having a discussion with a listener on the air yesterday. If we do indeed have a snow-free Christmas again this year, is it better to refer to it as a “Green Christmas” or a “Brown Christmas”? “Brown Christmas” certainly is a more accurate term, because that’s certainly what you see the most of these days. But “Green Christmas” is a little, well, prettier. A little more gentle. A little more Christmas-like.
And it’s not like it’s totally inaccurate. Before we had maybe an inch of snow on Monday, snow that will be melted well before Christmas arrives, I could look out the big studio window at work and see nothing but green, thanks to the plethora of cedar trees in front of the First Presbyterian Church across the street. And when I walked to work every morning, I saw the green (well, partial green) on front lawns ranging from my next-door neighbor to that of the Peter White Public Library. So while “Brown Christmas” is certainly more accurate this time of the year, “Green Christmas” can’t be dismissed out of hand.
So what do YOU think? Green or brown? Seeing as how, at least in Marquette, those will probably be our only two choices this year, I think we should decide this, and decide this quite soon!
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For some people, I know today’s an important day in one respect--it’s the shortest day of the year. Very early tomorrow the winter solstice will occur and our lovely planet will start to (slowly) tilt the northern hemisphere back toward the sun. That means that every day from now through June we get a few more minutes of daylight.
That means the days start getting longer. So it’s all uphill from here. Or downhill from here, I guess, depending upon your point of view and whether or not you think “up” or “down” is the good way to go. Regardless of the semantics, we start getting more daylight now. Even with the sun & clear skies we're experiencing on and off these days, we may not notice it right away, but our days WILL be getting longer.
That means winter will be over before we know it. Of course, winter has to actually start this year for it to be over before we know it, but if it ever does start, we’ll be ready.
Longer days, here we come!
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