What has happened to our Christmases? The joy and warmth is being removed more and more each year. The soft heart-warming glow of multi colored lights on trees, shrubs, house trim and other ornaments has disappeared. In its place now is the harsh, glaring, antiseptic, and chillingly cold glare of all white lights.
Homes are becoming extensions of the large stores people shop in for Christmas gifts for loved ones. Stores want the cold commercial hard white lights to illuminate and scream, “HERE, HERE, BUY THOSE GIFTS HERE.” Now the homes are screaming, “HERE, LOOK AT MY COLD BRIGHT LIGHTS.” It won’t be long before all homes will leave the lights up all year ‘round as businesses do.
Christmas has always been a special, warm, friendly and loving few weeks at the end of each year. I want to see the warmth and glow of the Yuletide season begin after Thanksgiving, another special time of year by the way, which should not be interrupted by a Christmas sales pitch.
In years past we started in early November with tributes to the servicemen and women who sacrificed themselves so that the rest of us could enjoy the wonders of our great country in peace and happiness. We called them then, and still do, our beloved ‘veterans.’
As we honored the accomplishments of these ordinary fellow citizens we segued into the season of giving thanks to not just those stalwarts, but to all of our predecessors who made this country the first class leader of the world’s nations. We took time to think about them and offer a prayer of gratitude during the time we call ‘Thanksgiving.’
Then it was time for the most glorious of the year’s celebrations, - the happy, holy and righteous time of the celebrations of Christmas and Hanukkah; a joyous, yet solemn occasion when we recognized the birth of our spiritual Leader. We hung the boughs of evergreens, sang the spirited and uplifting carols, and decorated our homes with warm and colorful lights. We had a feeling of joy and celebration that lasted for several weeks. Only grinches and the ACLU were unhappy with these heartfelt feelings.
Then the white, bright and wondrous light of hope for the coming New Year replaced the warm colors of the Christmas season. We bundled up for warmth while waiting for the arrival of spring. The warm lights of Christmas were taken down and put into storage until the end of November when the next happy holiday season arrived.
But that was then, and this is now. Now the cold commercial white lights continue on and on never extinguished. Businesses decided that the white lights caught the attention of the potential shoppers more rapidly than the dull darkness of the ‘out of season’ facades of normal and dolorous winter hues. The white lights continue to glow, twelve months out of the year. Trees, bushes and storefronts that once were brightly lit only during the annual Yuletide season now sport those same white lamps all year ‘round in hopes of attracting more business.
And that’s OK. I see no harm in doing something that will attract more customers. What bothers me is that in recent years the residential neighborhoods that once were the meccas of seasonal warmth with the gaily colored lights on trees, bushes and houses as well as on the big indoor Christmas trees that proudly adorned the center of the big picture windows in a house’s living room, are being replaced with the same commercial, bright, cold, white lights.
Trips around the neighborhoods looking for the most warm and gaily lit houses and properties once were family treats. A brisk walk in the cold with warm clothing, earmuffs, and gloves to view the other houses nearby was a family excursion that cost nothing and earned big dividends. The dividends being the delightful squeals of the little ones as they spotted a large, colorfully lit tree in a window surrounded by a mixture of red, green, amber and blue lights outlining the house and cascading from the bushes nearby. It was enough to make a family sing carols on the way.
Today trips around neighborhoods are fewer due to the sameness of the decorations and lights in the yards and inside the houses. A pure, antiseptic, virginal quality of light, but without the warmth and cheery feeling of the multitude of colorful bulbs that represented Christmases past. It’s like driving through a new development of houses row upon row, identical in shape, size and character and all painted white. Boooorrrring!
It’s undoubtedly cheaper for a business to decorate for the entire year with hundreds of lights that are all white than to have to stock many different colors of bulbs for burned out replacements. Perhaps this same reason is controlling the homeowners in their decorating styles. Warmth may be succumbing to the economy.
It’s sad to think that every facet of Christmas must be dictated by the economy. As for me, I’m keeping my colored lights and if they stop making them, I’ll paint them.
Gerald A. “Jerry” McConnell, 92, of Hampton, died Sunday, February 19, 2017, at the Merrimack Valley Hospice House in Haverhill, Mass., surrounded by his loved ones. He was born May 27, 1924 in Altoona, Pa., the fifth son of the late John E. and Grace (Fletcher) McConnell.
Jerry served ten years with the US Marine Corps and participated in the landing against Japanese Army on Guadalcanal and another ten years with the US Air Force. After moving to Hampton in 1957 he started his community activities serving in many capacities.
He shared 72 years of marriage with his wife Betty P. (Hamilton) McConnell. In addition to his wife, family members include nieces and nephews.
