Lit

It creeps up on little kitten paws. You don’t really see it at first. One minute it’s Halloween. There’s faux tableaus of haunted houses and fake cobwebs stretched over shrubs. I don’t really know why anyone needs fake ones…we have plenty of real cobwebs but they aren’t as dense and lush as the fake ones.

October 31st comes and goes. The haunted houses slowly fade away just as the light fades to a protracted night. Pumpkins go from tight, leering grins to rotting pouts reminiscent of old men without their dentures.

Driving home in the dark you start to notice a colored strand of light wound around a stair banister. Then there’s a bush or two draped in soft white lights. Before you know it the winter holidays are in full swing. Santa is bouncing on a front lawn. Faux icicles dangle from the eaves of a McMansion. A menorah graces a window ledge with blue light bulbs marking off the days.

The holidays seem to wind up slowly but steadily now. There’s an artful way of dragging out the season that escalates as it looms large and grows closer.
You’ll be getting ready for work one morning with a slight chill in the air and see a TV commercial hinting at colder days and holiday gifts. Nothing blatant yet; no C’mas tree in the picture, maybe some kids in feet-y jammies or a mom making hot chocolate. Hints, of what’s on the horizon. You know it’s there. You know the season is right within reach but not quite there yet.

There’s only 55 days between Halloween and Christmas. There are usually about 100 days or so between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Fifty-five days isn’t really very long when you think about it. When you’re a little kid those 55 days are endlessly long but as an adult it doesn’t seem long at all. A lot of people bemoan the sight of their first string of holiday lights after Halloween complaining that there’s plenty of time for that…but is there? Just 55 days.

I admit. I’m not a fan of the holidays. I’m a Summer chick m’self. If anything I’m looking to countdown for it to all be over. Despite that I admit to being fascinated by the ritual associated with the entire season. I know that every night as I drive home I’ll see yet another home lit up for the holidays. Suddenly there will be a giant bouncing Santa on a lawn or a white-lit reindeer tableau. I saw the local Jewish center assembling the community menorah in the dark last night on my way home from work.

Despite whatever anyone may think we’re really doing this to brighten these suddenly dark and dreary days. In the Spring and Summer I’d never notice driving through neighborhoods dripping in lights because daylight would outshine those manmade light sources. Not now, though. Now every bit of light in the darkness stands out and makes you notice it. I find my eyes drawn to the lights now on my way home. There’s one house, a McMansion really, that has been in full holiday light regalia now for a while, I wonder if they get bored seeing their holiday lights for such a long time.

Just as these lights and decorations pad in on kitten paws, the same happens after December 25th. Everyone has their own rituals. For some people they get that tree down right away (not many, I suspect). Others take it down by January 1st, no doubt to have it all done before hunkering down to the hard work of another year. Most people I know believe the tree and associated decorations come down on January 6th, Little Christmas, Epiphany to some. Others have no timeline in mind. Some outside decorations stay up all year. Depending on the snow and ice some may need to stay up until the Spring thaw.

I don’t decorate much anymore. The first year in our current house I was so happy to finally have a decent sized house that I went a bit crazy. I put up two trees; begged the husband to hang outside lights and generally decorated every room in the house.

I remember how much I loved it. I thought it looked like a wonderful holiday card (despite the fact that our house needed TONS of cosmetic improvements). December 26th dawned and suddenly I couldn’t wait to put everything away. The house felt overstuffed with crap. Things suddenly looked dingy. As quickly as everything went up (I did it in one Saturday top to bottom, I was on a tear); down it came. By January 1st it looked like Spring was just around the corner in our home. I felt tremendous relief to have all that space back.

Each year since then I’ve scaled back more and more. From two trees to one; from that one six foot tree to a tabletop three foot tree; from that tabletop tree to no tree. From swags of faux evergreens on the stairs topped off with a giant C’mas stocking to just the stocking; to nothing. By this past year I put out a few of my snowpeople items in a few places. That was it.

I’m not a humbug (or am I?) I just realized that it was a lot of work putting the stuff up and even more work taking it down. I like to look at other people’s decorations I just no longer feel the burning need to do the same.

So once again I’ll watch as front lawns and windows morph from nothing special to magical wintery delights and then I’ll watch again as they slowly fade to black. The only decoration, if we have another winter like last year, will be piles and piles of ice and snow, melting to a mushy gray before accepting another winter coating to cover up the dreariness.

Or if this Winter is like many other years those lights and magical fairylands will fade to nothing more than dreary gray days and long nights filled with cold, sleet-y rain. One day the weather will take an unseasonable jump in temperature and we’ll all notice that the night was a little less long. Some weeks will pass and we’ll notice that the earth is thawing, the dogs are once again tracking their muddy paws through the house instead of limping in holding their paws up to be gently de-iced and warmed up.

Just as silently as the holiday lights and decorations appeared they’ll disappear.