Comments on: Ignore the Calendar

By: MelanieO

MelanieO — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:42:41 +0000

Coming a bit late to the party, but in my area near Boston, decorations are a big deal. There are neighborhoods we visit during the holidays just to enjoy the lights…without incurring the electric bills that would come with doing such displays ourselves.

A friend who stopped by my house over the weekend remarked, “Wow – you’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of those kissing balls,” which to me indicated that it’s time to take them down. Miserly Yankee that I am, however, I can’t bear to toss them; they are still green!

With the great melt we experienced this weekend came the reappearance of our fall scarecrow, long buried and forgotten, now looking like retirement is his only future.

I’m not a fan of undecorating but get around to it eventually…

By: M0therAdm1n

M0therAdm1n — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:19:37 +0000

Someone needs to do a sociological study of which geographic areas go bonkers for decorating and which do not, and why. And who knew that Buffalo residents were called Buffalonians?!!

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 15:36:08 +0000

I have Christmas guest towels too and they are currently folded in the laundry room as everything else has been put away!

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 03:48:23 +0000

In Boston, people are no so much into decoration in as I remember them being in Maryland, where I grew up. Growing up we put fake (electric) candles in the windows, garlands in the stairs, etc., as did our neighbors. Where I live now, near Boston, we put up a wreath and a tree and that’s about it, and that’s pretty much the norm.

Oh, and we leave our wreath up well into Feb., when Lent (usually) starts, but all the inside stuff goes away by Jan 1st, painful as the process is.

By: KatyDidIt

KatyDidIt — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 20:19:16 +0000

Buffalonians are very into decorating, but with all of the snow, the decorations rarely come down until the thaw begins to happen. The docoratoins also generally seem to be of the “what’s big at Wal-Mart” variety. The last couple years there has been an over-abundance of the large inflated decorations. A few years back, everyone had the deer made of the wire frames and white fairy lights. None of these seem particularly festive to me. I prefer the decorations that you can tell were done by the kids with heart who were enjoying it rather than the store bought contrived nonsense we have too much of. It does not matter that the trees out front only have lights hanging on the low hanging branches. I will take a lopsided snowman or a creche featuring Santa next to the baby Jesus over a picture perfect scenario any day.

By: lindacopy

lindacopy — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:37:14 +0000

It makes practical sense, you’re right. But it takes away some of the excitement and effort that go into making any seasonal celebration a heightened time. The actual going-through-the-motions of hanging lights, etc. has been a good life lesson for my sons, especially in our convenience-driven society. [Older or infirm folks are exempt from this and should by all means leave their lights up year-round!]
My birthday is the day before the official first day of spring; I always liked that.

By: jennifer

jennifer — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:10:30 +0000

Yes, Emily, undecorating is a bit of a melancholy chore. Hence people’s procrastination on same. I definitely think leaving lights up makes sense.

By: Emily

Emily — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:37:15 +0000

Being of the Jewish faith (i.e. no Xmas decorations), I have often pondered the pros and cons of outside lights. If I were to string these pretties, I imagine that I might leave them up all year — maybe not turn them on — but certainly not go through the hassle of taking them down and restringing. Because they are kinda invisible during the day if you don’t look hard. All in all, undecorating seems like a total bummer in every sense. Does it make you sad?