Quigs’ Corner

Can you believe that it’s December, and Christmas is in only 16 days!?  It seems that many of my friends and family are not ‘into’ Christmas this year.  I find that this is the case more and more each year.  I’m not sure if this has to do with age or over-commercialization of the holiday in the retail outlets.  One store I went into in mid-October already had Christmas decorations on sale!  Just too much for me.    

I think part of it is that there aren’t really any younger kids to share the holiday with in our family right now - to watch them look at what Santa left for them, the remnants of the cookies and carrots, and the excitement and magic of this mystical elf.  I have no plans on having little ones of my own, so I’ll either need to rent a kid, of wait til my nieces and nephews start having kids to get to watch the amazement of the season.  In the meantime, I’ll keep sipping on my eggnog.  Maybe this will help me see that elf personally! 

It seems that the Christmas season is upon us.  How do I know this?  Let’s see - the most evident clue right now are the thousands of holiday lights that adorn neighboring houses ranging from a simple lighted wreath to an outline of the entire house in big, bright white lights.  I personally can’t justify the cost of purchasing the lights (approx $300), the price of installation (probabaly about $200) THEN you gotta pay to get them down (another $200).  This isn’t even taking into account the cost of running these things for hours on end from Thanksgiving to New Year. 

I really do love the look, and the enjoy the brightness it brings the neighborhoods.  But, have these people been paying attention to all the ‘green’ education that is everywhere now?  From Al Gore to your next door elementary school student, conservation has been preached to the masses.  Mr Gore certainly has everyone’s attention after the Noble prize….so why is there no consideration of this at Christmas? 

I suspect tradition is driving the light brigade, and that they really do make a bold statement at this festive time of year.  I’ll put up my [little] lights, in only a few places around my house and enjoy the light show from others’ homes as I drive or walk around town this holiday season.