OK. I can deal very well with the fact that some people feel compelled to scatter big plastic holy families and Santas and reindeer all over their lawns for the whole month of December (and usually the last half of November).
But it’s JANUARY and no one in my neighborhood has made the slightest move to stick the stuff back in the garage! There should be some kind of ordinanace that says if you don’t remove that ghastly crap over New Year’s weekend, it gets picked up with the trash.
Anyone else have this problem? Am I doomed to look at this stuff till the equally horrific Valentine’s decorations go up?
Living in this “proper” suburban wasteland, I do not have this problem at all. Between December 26 and January 2nd, all the Christmas decorations in the neighborhood came down.
Oh, I’m now reminded of a little blurb I read in the neighborhood weekly about this time last year. There was a close-up photo of a hedge that still had Christmas lights on it (I think the paper came out on New Years Day) with a caption that read (something to the effect of) “Isn’t it about time to take down the lights?” On New Year’s Day! Fercryinoutloud, give people a chance to get back from vacations!
In my old neighborhood, people put away their little lawn scenes, but a few of them left their lights up all year round…didn’t turn them on, just left them up. Weird. Half the fun is having a snowball fight while Dad puts the lights up.
“Wednesday the 15th - Chris made one of her rare good points today.” Guanolad
The 12 days of Christmas last from Dec. 25 to today, Jan. 6. This is Epiphany, the day the wise men supposedly visited the holy family. So relax for a bit, you can start venting again tomorrow.
When I read the OP there were no responses, and I was typing the following when the phone rang. I see that they’ve been covered, but what the heck –
Today is Epiphany – the day when the kings supposedly came to see Jesus. We will have a celebration at church tonight, complete with a “king’s cake.” Our lights are still up to show the kings the way, and our tree and nativity scenes are also still up.
Tomorrow (Jan. 7) is Orthodox Christmas. (Their Easter celebration is usually different from the Western calendar’s, too.)
We are just now at the end of the 12 days of Christmas.
I personally would prefer to have Christmas extend over to today, and not start so friggin’ early! I HATE having Christmas stuff out in the stores before Thanksgiving, and I don’t really get into Christmas until a week or two beforehand. I wish we celebrated past Dec. 25 rather than so far ahead of it.
your neighbors don’t start to put up decorations until november? wow. people around here start in october–except for those who don’t take them down at all, & have at least the lights on at night year round.
this year was the earliest i’ve ever seen the stores put out christmas decorations: june.
Well, yeah, except in my neighborhood they leave one holiday’s decoration up till the next holiday—so I get Xmas stuff till Valentine’s Day, till St. Paddy’s Day, till Easter—after which we’re safe till the 4th of July. This is NOT just a matter of it coming down next week; it’ll be up for a month!
Now I can go from being called a grinch to being called an elitist—I grew up on the oh-so-tasteful Main Line, where people only put up the quietest and most old-fashioned decorations, and only for a short period of time. Now I’m in the heart of middle-class suburbia, and well, the Mrs. Drysdale in me is appalled.
Eve - don’t sweat it honey. I feel the same way you do. Now that’s not to say that my decorations have been taken down - we have a special reason they are still up - INSIDE. The outside stuff has been stored. Well, all except for the deer…
I made the mistake of making the same complaint to my carpool companion. She’s a preacher’s daughter as well a the ex-wife of a preacher, so of course I got lectured, too. I been to church a time or two in my life, but this really was a new one on me. Seems most of my neighbors in my old neighborhood had their lights off by New Year’s Day (though most, including us, kept the lights up year round. Who the hell wants to spend a day climbing a ladder stringing lights and then another day taking them down again just to do it all over again a year later? It’s easier to spend a few minutes just changing burned out light bulbs ;)).
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
Upper Darby? My Mom was born and raised in Upper Darby! Me, I’m a Penn Valley girl, and my Mom now lives in Bryn Mawr . . . small world. And a nice one, if you’re close enough to Suburban Square.
In the liturgical calendar for the Western churches that observe such things, the feast day of the Epiphany (Jan. 6) follows the 12-day Christmas season, which runs 12/25 to 1/5. (Yes, that is 12 days: 25,26,27,28,29,30,31,1,2,3,4,5.)
So Eve, vent away: Christmas is over, already.
Now, can anyone tell me what ‘twelfth night’ originally was? I’ve checked dictionaries and the britannica.com web site, but no straight answer; they give both the night before Epiphany (Jan. 5), and the night of Epiphany (Jan. 6).
Twelfth Night is this weekend! Got my garb all ready!
Hmm… maybe I’ll find someone who knows why it’s celebrated.
(Oh if ye canna get laid in the SCA, ye canna get laid at all…)
http://www.madpoet.com
There’s a million fine looking women in the world, dude, but not all of them will being you lasagna at work. Most just cheat on you.
I always feel that Christmas lights up into mid-January look sad and forlorn. Something about it says ghost town…when the trouble came, no one had time to even pack a bag…
Now would probably be a bad time to mention that we still have our lit up Halloween cat out, huh? Of course, it came off it’s hook and it’s just dangling from its cord now, from the porch light…
I’d say that most towns in early January look pretty sad and forlorn, Xmas lights or not. Particularly when we’ve had no snow. On the whole, I don’t care if people bring their crecher features inside or not, but I’d rather they kept the lights on for a while. But then, I’m a big fan of bright primary colors.
I think our Ms. Golden is just cranky 'cause after the holidays, Eves no longer get all the attention.
(Now she can be cranky because this is the 1000th Eve pun she’s had to put up with, just in this millennium.)