Over-doing decorating

There’s a new TV commercial for a new version of the NC Lottery
where a couple decorates the exterior of their home for Christmas and
turns on the lights. The wife’s only response is “More!” The husband
dutifully responds with a heavy duty plug, and the home is illuminated
with a blinding display.
One can only imagine that the way to a truly great Christmas display
at your home is through winning the lottery. Maybe that’s the subtle message
here.
It speaks to what I see as an insatiable appetite
for decorating our homes for Christmas.
No offense ladies, but it almost seems like we
are over-doing decorating.
I spoke with a couple of guys the other
night apart from their wives. We were comparing
notes about ours.
I readily admit that I came out on the long
end of the conversation, but another guy’s
wife was sick and he got a temporary pass as
well.
The third was talking about how big a
production decorating his house was. There
was actually a packing up of things across
his house to make room for the Christmas
decorations. I’ve forgotten how many boxes of
decorations he said they brought down from
the attic for decorating his home.
He was saying that this year they had to replace the ribbons on some
of the decorations; that three years is about all you can get from bows. He
remembered how his late mother used to carefully store her decorations
so they would last another year.
The other was noting how last year his wife had bought a third
Christmas tree for their home. This one was to sit on the kitchen table so
it could be visible from the street in front of their home. The other two
couldn’t be seen from the front of the house, so they needed a third to be
seen from the front of the house.
This is a young couple. They have no children. Two people. Three
Christmas trees.
I did my share the day after, bringing home from our outside storage
(the attic is indeed full) four storage bins of Christmas stuff. That doesn’t
include the Christmas tree. I think the wife is holding out for a new tree
this year.
I’m not going to blame Lowe’s for all of this, but they certainly have
made it easy for us to go into excess mode on decorating.
I know my street couldn’t wait for Thanksgiving. While I let my beard
grow and was watching the endless stream of football over the holiday,
my neighbors were busy getting their decorations up. It almost seems
that there’s a decorating contest going on.
There’s some kid left in me, and I enjoy the lights. I can remember riding
in a neighbor’s van twenty or thirty miles to look at Christmas lights
with the side door of the van open so more could see more of the lights.
I remember riding through a neighborhood in Goldsboro just in the last
year or two to see all of the decorating they were doing.
In southern Johnston County there is a crossroads called Meadow,
famous for the Meadow Grill and their extra-good home cooking, and the
Meadow Lights, an extensive set of Christmas decorations. I wonder how
many fewer people will go to see the Meadow Lights this year. Our local
neighborhoods it seems are saying you don’t have to go.
We have gone to the Raleigh area display. I think they’ve moved it to
Walnut Creek in recent years. There’s another in Wilson which is used as
a fundraiser for a school, if memory serves me correctly.
We seem bent, if you will, on finding new ways to spend money for
Christmas.
I know there is a plumbing-electrical contractor who has an extensive
display at his house on a well-traveled road. I remember other “rich folk”
who used to extensively decorate their homes for the season. If you will,
maybe it was a way that they put back into their community.
I was struck recently as I drove past a rather modest home near a
busy intersection in northern Wayne County. I think there were about
seven inflatable decorations that lay flat in their yard, not to mention the
others that were dormant during the day, only to spring to life and light
once dusk came.
I got a call from someone yesterday. He mentioned there was someone
in our community that needed help paying their heating bill. They had
fallen on some hard times. I made another phone call and we figured out
a way to help the family.
I hope we aren’t getting so bent on spending money on decorations
that we don’t have any left to share with those who need a helping hand.
Don’t we all need one at one time or another?