Advent: Decorations

I grew up in a house that decorated in a minimalist way for Christmas: lights on a few bushes using Pop's famous castnet approach, maybe a wreath on the door, only later a cute wooden cutout snowman (after the painted newspaper angels from my grandmother that used to sit in a window had deteriorated). Inside, we had a tree, later a nativity, some candles, a little greenery, a Santa Christmas card holder. Spare, tasteful, effective.

But nearby, there was a neighborhood renowned for its lights extravaganza. I understand you were required to agree to decorating when you moved in, something about the homeowner's association. It was fantastic . . . to visit, though we always wondered how the neighborhood coped with traffic from dusk til late, to the point that emergency vehicles would never be able to get in. But as a kid, I didn't care: there streets featuring the Night Before Christmas, Twelve Days of Christmas, Snoopy and the Peanuts gang, Christmas around the world, stuff like that--10-12 houses on a block all with matching cut-outs and a progressive narrative. One house, though I don't remember it being a whole block, even had carousel horses. It was beautiful. Fantastic. Spirited. And every year, even if we didn't often visit that crazy neighborhood, we would drive around singing carols and drinking eggnog, appreciating the decorating enthusiasm of our neighbors.

But we don't decorate like that. First, because we don't have an external plug for any decorations in front (or a doorbell), unless we run it from the back porch. Secondly, there aren't many decorations we like. I like those wooden cutouts over any inflatable or lit, moving wire critter now popular, but you can't really seem to find them up here. I wonder if it's a Texas thing? Maybe because snow would rot wood pretty quickly?? Thirdly, we never seem to get organized in time. This year, I just erased the ghosts and spiders off the front windows today. But we did spend the morning painting on a tree, a mantle with stockings and presents below, a snowfriend, and Santa (which Sis promptly decided I should remove, after she had lobbied heavily for it). We remembered to hang out our snowman twirly-whirly flag yesterday. But our wreath is still on the front porch, waiting for Mama to affix to the house. And since Albus tried to eat that wreath when he got out on the porch, I imagine it will be awhile til our tree goes up.

While I miss the wooden cutouts of my youth (which don't "die" in the mornings--our whole town looks like some kind of Christmas massacre until dusk--or blow over when it's windy), I do love the look of those 18th-century houses with the single candle in each window and perhaps a wreath on the door, especially if there is snow on the ground. Really, snow is the most beautiful decoration there is, though there is rarely a white Christmas. And, since we don't have a colonial, we'll keep painting the windows with bright illustrations and maybe string some lights if we can work out the wiring. I'll leave the inflatables to my neighbor across the way, who now has seven. And his isn't the most in town.

It's great by me . . . as long as traffic doesn't increase!