I looked out my window just now and my neighbor is on his roof putting Christmas lights up. It is fifty-eight friggin' days before Christmas. WTF? There were also neighbors that put up Halloween decorations in mid-September! Has everyone lost their mind? Yeah, I get that retail stores are perfectly happy to put this crap out on display to sell to weak-minded people back in August (!) but that doesn't mean a person needs to act like WalMart and run right home and throw the junk up on the house and drop it on the lawn. When I'm king, decorations like these will go up no earlier than one week before the holiday, and come back down within 2 days later. Consider a birthday and birthday decorations. If you were decorating for someone's birthday, you wouldn't put decorations up several weeks beforehand, would you? You'd put them up on the day of the birthday. Otherwise you'd diminish and dilute what you are trying to celebrate by taking away the specialness of the seeing the decorations. They'd just become commonplace. It would be the same with the 4th of July decorations - put them up on the day!
There is a house that I pass daily on my way to work that has been decorated for Halloween since the beginning of October. It is pretty cool and it doesn't bother me at all. I'm good with people decorating a month out from the holiday (if I was going to go through the trouble of decorating, I would want to be able to admire my work for more than a couple of days). I also understand getting Christmas lights put up while the weather is warm, but don't want to see them turned on until after Thanksgiving.
We need more of this! Outdoor gear and sporting goods retailer REI is canceling Black Friday this year. No promotions, no hourly sales, no doorbusters, no waiting in line. In an unprecedented move for the modern-day holiday shopping season, REI's 143 stores will be closed the day after Thanksgiving.
I know someone that doesn't take their Christmas lights down. The lights stay attached to the house... All he does is flips the light switch on just before Christmas.... And then he flips the light switch off after Christmas... There.... Done... Ready for next year.... Bah Humbug....
We often put up our Xmas lights (although the displays gets smaller and less complicated each year) when it's warm, usually sometime close to T-Day, but we don't turn them on till after Thanksgiving, and they go off the day after New Years - that's more than enough in my book...... But speaking of Halloween - do any of you without young kids at home still give out treats that night? We used to, but we're down to about 3 small children in our 'hood.....most years we can count on one hand how many little beggars show up - some years we get none at all.
That's exactly how it worked in South Korea when I lived there in the 90's You can't imagine how much more special Christmas becomes when it's short.
We don't have kids at home anymore, but my wife and I make little party favors out of small baseball sized plastic pumpkins or little witches cauldrons stuffed with various candies. We only get half a dozen trick or treaters, so it's fun to get a little fancy. p.s. We leave out xmas lights up all year. They are a pain in the butt to put up and take down.
All the more reason to never put up those lights, IMO. I feel the same way about the effort of putting up a tree. Yeah, yeah, you can call me a Grinch, but I submit nobody can get in the holiday mood, (whatever holiday it is), and maintain that for the ever increasing duration they are forced to see decorations of that holiday day in, and day out. Wears me out and disgusts me to be honest.
We have an artificial tree, and we put it up a couple weeks before the day and take it down the day after New Years.
I feel the same way every year around election time (even worse on the years with the presidential election) with all the advertisements on TV and the signs in people's yards.
I think he needs to get out of town for a long weekend with his classic Mini, maybe somewhere in Arkansas would sooth his soul?
I worked for REI many years ago. I'm not surprised to see them do this. They are also paying their employees to NOT work on Black Friday. As for decorations, I let my ex-wife have them all. Our house looked like Santa's workshop from Thanksgiving to New Year's day when we were married. That got old really fast. My house now has zero decorations for any holiday, although I am sometimes tempted to put up a Festivus pole. :biggrin5: CD
Some of my neighbors came up with an idea to do a "grown-ups" Trick-Or-Treat at Halloween several years ago, that would start at 10pm, and instead of candy, participating homes would give out shots of some kind. I loved the idea, but we live in the bible belt, so the idea got some panties in a wad, and never happened. CD
About 16 minutes in, you can see the results of that idea. Watch The Simpsons Online - Halloween of Horror | Hulu
I was enjoying a nice country drive this past weekend and I come around a corner and out of the corner of my eye, What did I see? Santa's work shop being erected... The whole dam village was already up spread across what seemed to be a dam near 1.5 acre lot. Elves, rain deer, Santa and Mrs. Claus all out there waving hello. Santa's sleigh was already flashing that obnoxious flash that occurs when one puts in that red tipped light in the string.. Hate that.. Anyways. Day after Thanksgiving they go up. Day After New Years they come down. It's what my mother taught me. I'll have her put an add in the local paper so others know the RULES... Cheers!