MutteringfoolDotCom: Decorations

MutteringfoolDotCom

by Suzy Smith since 2000.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Decorations

I am willing to admit it. Over this I have no shame.

I like tacky Christmas decorations. The giant blow up Santas, Frostys and reindeer. The house covered from top to bottom, side to side, every inch with lights. The yard with so many cheap, old plastic light up figurines in it, that you no longer see grass.

That kind of thing makes me grin from ear to ear. A Christmas tree with a million different kinds of ornaments, and lights that are faded in color from years of use is the only kind of tree to have. Plastic and fabric Santas on the shelves that normally hold books are knick-knacks. You know the ones that dance and sing, or "HO HO HO" so deep that it scares little children.

Old large bulb Christmas lights, particularly the ones that are originally from the 70s, strung across a fence make me giggle with glee and want to be 4 again.

My favorite though, and you don't see many of them anymore, are the minilights that have the reflectors behind them. The reflectors shaped like tulips and other flowers, as really that fits the Christmas season. We used to have strings and strings of those. I'm not sure if they were one of the things stolen or if my parents got rid of them.

Or if they are lurking in their attic. If I knew they were up there I would beg someone to bring them down, as I miss them. Those lights with the reflectors were always on our house and tree. Well, those or the giant bulbs (which I adore and when I saw that they were coming back I squeed like a little girl.)

I remember sitting in the living room while Daddy untangled the lights, breaking a piece or two off a reflector and swearing. Boy did a lot of swearing happen on light untangling day. He swore and cussed and then declared "This is it, the last year, next year I buy brand new" for as many years as I can remember.

And, every year, normally the weekend after Thanksgiving he was untangling those lights, placing them on our tree and the house. As you had to decorate the outside of the house for the kids.

I remember walking out, in the cold, in our slippers, to see the lights on the house, the night Daddy finished putting them up. We'd stand there declare how beautiful they are, then run back in to where it was warm.

At least until we moved to Virginia. Then, we didn't have to run as fast since Decembers are much warmer here.

But, I digress. The decorations. The tackier, the kitschy, the shinier, the better. Don't get me wrong I can appreciate the houses with the single white candles in the windows and the wreaths lit by spotlights but, that is just too upscale, too classy for me. No one in our neighborhood decorated like that.

No one in this neighborhood decorates like that. It's colored lights, and lots of them, garland wrapped around anything standing upright. Plastic and blow up figures.

That is Christmas decorations for the people I know and can relate to. The people that make up the majority of the USA are more like me, than they are the people with the large houses, single candles, and spotlit wreaths.

And, I wouldn't change that for anything.

posted by Suzy @ 10:58 PM

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