It's beginning to look a lot like...
I want to say Christmas, but that’s been around since Halloween. I can be quite the Grinch at times. Eventually I’ll make a costume out of a fuzzy green onesie and bring along a little friend to serve as Max or Cindy Lou Who. The holiday spirit has been a bit off thanks to another year of the pandemic. With the latest iteration of the Greek alphabet on the loose some folks are choosing to lay low while others who are triple vaxxed, previously infected, or ambivalent to the whole thing are trying their best to carry on with family gatherings and travel.
I’m on the fence wanting to get in the spirit of the season yet at the same time preferring to lock down and not come out until the next year. This year I’m taking the cafeteria approach to the holidays, picking the what-when-who-how based upon what make me happy, what makes me feel safe and what keeps the lights on.
Speaking of lights, nothing brightens my mood more than holiday lights. When I was growing up my entire family would pile in the car to drive around town to see all the decorations. There was one house in particular, on the corner of two rural roads, that went all out with mechanical Santas, a sleigh and reindeer flying over the roof, music, and rotating trees. Even their kids’ treehouse was lit up like Broadway. Keep in mind these weren’t the inflatable and pre-lit kits from Walmart or Lowes, it was all designed and hand crafted. A line of cars snaked in both directions every night the display was up. Now there are entire neighborhoods who collaborate/compete with holiday lighting displays, but it’s still heartwarming to drive through the back roads of farm country and see elaborately decorated homes as well as warmly lit trees in the window.
Normally I set up a big tree sourced from the tree farm just up the road and place it in the windows facing the lane coming back to the house. I turn out all the house lights except the tree so when I walk home after tucking everyone in for the night at the barns I’m treated to my own personal holiday cheer. There are handmade ornaments, ones from places I’ve visited over the years, and ones with great significance I delicately wrap in tissue paper and box again to protect from breaking. Each one a memory unto itself. But this year the tree lot closed down after a few days (COVID, what else?) and I grabbed the first tree I found after cruising the usual tree lot spots and finding most of them closed, too. It was a little Charlie Brown tree that listed to starboard until I trimmed the trunk past the bend that caused it to appear crooked. It would have been dwarfed by the big windows and my weaving looms have kind of taken over that room in the last year so the tree got tucked further into the house. To make matters worse, the old strand of lights gave out so I left the tree unlit and scaled back on the ornaments to only things found in nature. I couldn’t have asked for a better metaphor for 2021. So many lights have gone out this last year, both literally and figuratively. For some, even the bare minimum is a struggle. But all is not lost. I get my Christmas lights fix by driving through town instead of using the bypass to get to the interstate. There is a huge tree brightly lit in the center of the roundabout and it has reminded me that when our own lights grow dim there are always others to help brighten the way.