The first Sunday of Advent, a time set aside for preparation and anticipation for the fulfillment of prophecies of hope and redemption. Or, a time to get great deals on 42-inch flat screen TV's and great discounts on this year's playstation and an amalgam of assorted electronic time-wasters.
Maybe one does not have to choose either/or from the above. But I am secure with my current size (of TV) and perhaps I have wasted too much time in other frivolous ways to consider wasting more time in getting excited over electronic games. For me, I prefer dedicating some time to a few of the Christmas traditions and hold my doubts about the worthiness of camping in a Wal-Mart parking lot to purchase a bigger TV.
This Advent Season began with a 73 degree day! Perfect for putting on one of my Hawaiian shirts and stringing Christmas lights along the eves. I am not oblivious to modern trends, trends that add plenty of glitz, easily set up with the speed of a blitz. Namely, yard art Christmas decorations, lighted lawn ornaments and manufactured Christmas light nets that can be thrown over a tree or a bush and plugged in without hassle.
For me, I have not modernized our outdoor Christmas display, I like to think it is out of some great virtue that lighted eves have over the inflated, internally lit lawn displays - but I must admit, there is no such virtue in the more tedious decorations, just a reluctance on my part to spend additional money when I already have "perfectly fine" outdoor Christmas decorations. Not a scrooge - but a prudent approach toward the seasonal festivities and festooning I tell myself. On the other hand, our neighbors when I was a kid proudly claimed they had an unlit "Bah Humbug! House"; we at least make an effort.
Not only are my Christmas lights not modern, they date way back, almost to the days of the Magi. I think they can be traced at least to 1972, the year of Nixon's re-election and pre-dating the Arab oil embargo. These C-9 class color Christmas bulbs are individually crafted and screwed into their own socket, where they shine forth for but a few days before they must be replaced. These C-9 bulbs were the kind of lights sanctioned by St. Peter himself as the official light of Christmas. Now, we have strings of tiny LED bulbs made in China and sold for $2.89 for the whole string. And when one goes bad, you do not lovingly and tenderly replace the now dimmed out beacon, but one is constrained by utilitarian economics to throw out the whole lot. Sons of perdition! Indeed, the proliferation of these type of namby-pamby disposable Christmas lights are the harbinger of the "end times" I say.
Clothing myself in self-proclaimed righteousness and with my arms wrapped in a tangled mess of green electrical wire and fragile C-9 bulbs, I ascend the latter to tediously and precariously insert the C-9 with their specialized attachment apparatus between the eves and shingles. The lights are alternating blue and green spaced 12" apart, casting a heavenly peace across the front of the house once the December sun has set. I kind of like the look, even if it engenders within me an unholy smug self-satisfaction. Jesus will forgive me.
Many of the houses in the neighborhood have a variety of seasonal displays that came out of the garage when the temperature was in the 70's, weathered cold, strong 40 mph winds the next week, snow on Christmas day, and by the beginning of Epiphany (Jan. 6) it was back to 70 degrees. Two doors down, the Rivera family sets up quite the holiday display on their lawn. They go for the inflated, animated and illuminated electric and eclectic lawn decorations. For Christmas they display: The M&M characters, an animated penguin that rises up out of a jack-in-the-box, the Holy Family kneeling at a manger, an 8-foot snowman, a Christmas moose (or is it a reindeer?) with 3-foot plastic candy canes lining the front walk.
As Tiny Tim pulls himself up on his crutches and comes out from the chimney corner and walks down our street and sees one house with only lights set out and another with a lawn filled with M&M characters, candy canes and a moose and a vinyl snowman; I hear him shout, "God bless us everyone!"
Indeed, a Merry Christmas to all!
Maybe one does not have to choose either/or from the above. But I am secure with my current size (of TV) and perhaps I have wasted too much time in other frivolous ways to consider wasting more time in getting excited over electronic games. For me, I prefer dedicating some time to a few of the Christmas traditions and hold my doubts about the worthiness of camping in a Wal-Mart parking lot to purchase a bigger TV.
This Advent Season began with a 73 degree day! Perfect for putting on one of my Hawaiian shirts and stringing Christmas lights along the eves. I am not oblivious to modern trends, trends that add plenty of glitz, easily set up with the speed of a blitz. Namely, yard art Christmas decorations, lighted lawn ornaments and manufactured Christmas light nets that can be thrown over a tree or a bush and plugged in without hassle.
For me, I have not modernized our outdoor Christmas display, I like to think it is out of some great virtue that lighted eves have over the inflated, internally lit lawn displays - but I must admit, there is no such virtue in the more tedious decorations, just a reluctance on my part to spend additional money when I already have "perfectly fine" outdoor Christmas decorations. Not a scrooge - but a prudent approach toward the seasonal festivities and festooning I tell myself. On the other hand, our neighbors when I was a kid proudly claimed they had an unlit "Bah Humbug! House"; we at least make an effort.
Not only are my Christmas lights not modern, they date way back, almost to the days of the Magi. I think they can be traced at least to 1972, the year of Nixon's re-election and pre-dating the Arab oil embargo. These C-9 class color Christmas bulbs are individually crafted and screwed into their own socket, where they shine forth for but a few days before they must be replaced. These C-9 bulbs were the kind of lights sanctioned by St. Peter himself as the official light of Christmas. Now, we have strings of tiny LED bulbs made in China and sold for $2.89 for the whole string. And when one goes bad, you do not lovingly and tenderly replace the now dimmed out beacon, but one is constrained by utilitarian economics to throw out the whole lot. Sons of perdition! Indeed, the proliferation of these type of namby-pamby disposable Christmas lights are the harbinger of the "end times" I say.
Clothing myself in self-proclaimed righteousness and with my arms wrapped in a tangled mess of green electrical wire and fragile C-9 bulbs, I ascend the latter to tediously and precariously insert the C-9 with their specialized attachment apparatus between the eves and shingles. The lights are alternating blue and green spaced 12" apart, casting a heavenly peace across the front of the house once the December sun has set. I kind of like the look, even if it engenders within me an unholy smug self-satisfaction. Jesus will forgive me.
Many of the houses in the neighborhood have a variety of seasonal displays that came out of the garage when the temperature was in the 70's, weathered cold, strong 40 mph winds the next week, snow on Christmas day, and by the beginning of Epiphany (Jan. 6) it was back to 70 degrees. Two doors down, the Rivera family sets up quite the holiday display on their lawn. They go for the inflated, animated and illuminated electric and eclectic lawn decorations. For Christmas they display: The M&M characters, an animated penguin that rises up out of a jack-in-the-box, the Holy Family kneeling at a manger, an 8-foot snowman, a Christmas moose (or is it a reindeer?) with 3-foot plastic candy canes lining the front walk.
As Tiny Tim pulls himself up on his crutches and comes out from the chimney corner and walks down our street and sees one house with only lights set out and another with a lawn filled with M&M characters, candy canes and a moose and a vinyl snowman; I hear him shout, "God bless us everyone!"
Indeed, a Merry Christmas to all!
No comments:
Post a Comment