ho ho humbug

I generally like the holidays - the break from classes, the chill in the air (at least back when we lived in Boston), the music. I don’t like the massive commercialization, the excess of cheesy covers of formerly decent music, or the traffic at the mall. Granted, we don’t celebrate Christmas, so sometimes I look at the chaos with a detached viewpoint - it’s not MY last-minute gift shopping, family-seeing, rush-rushing.

I’m less excited by it this year. Maybe the holiday doldrums are contagious - I know more people who dread the holidays (what with the uber-fertile relatives and “So, when are you going to have kids?”) than I have before. But really, I think it’s the inflatable lawn decorations that have ruined it for me this year.

These seem to be the decoration of choice around here this year - these air-pumped, lit-up Santas and snowmen (and even one Grinch). They’re pretty cheesy when they’re up - especially the snowmen in the 65 degree Southern California winter. I guess that’s why I see so many MELTED snowmen. That is, when the pump is off, the 8’ tall snowman collapses into a puddle of nylon on the carefully groomed lawns. They’re just so pathetic looking. It’s hard to get into the spirit with a lump of nylon snowman. But then, most decorations look rather lame during the day - those animated wire-form reindeer, for example. They’re okay when it’s dark, but during the day it’s all wires and plugs. J’s pet peeve is “icicle” lights - since we don’t come even close to ice - but these don’t bother me so much. Unless they’re rainbow icicles - what is that about?

[I have, on occasion, seen a nice holiday display using some of the aforementioned features, so you can appease yourself by thinking it’s yours if you want. It might be. Or maybe this is all just my way of saying “Bah, humbug.” I think I’ll curl up with the Christmas Weasel and some eggnog now.]