By Tim Leeds
It's nice to see the Christmas spirit held all year.
At least it seems to be, by how long Christmas decorations stay up.
A friend of mine was telling me a while ago how he and his brother-in-law were driving around town. The more they looked, the more Christmas wreaths and decorations they saw still up.
He said it was pretty amusing.
Decorations seem to be up all year long anymore. When I was younger, Halloween was an exciting time for decorations. Cardboard witches, jack-o-lanterns, and skeletons popped out from everywhere for a few days.
They seem to be coming earlier and earlier anymore. I don't remember seeing any before October, but I can't be sure. There's more and more to decorate with, too. I don't remember flashing orange lights for Halloween as a child. If I'm not careful, it looks like people are starting really early with an odd Christmas color scheme.
I suppose if the technology had been there, I would have seen motion-activated witches and ghosts and goblins that start to move and flash and make spooky noises. I guess there's nothing wrong with technological improvements for decorations. It does make it a little more fun, or annoying, depending on your point of view.
It certainly makes the season more profitable for retail stores. Now you can buy an incredible variety of decorations for virtually any holiday. My friend who saw the Christmas wreaths recently works at the Big Kmart. He said they're not planning to bring out the Christmas decorations for next year right after Easter, but I figure that could startin the near future.
I don't suppose retail stores have room to bring them out that soon, anyway. They have to keep space to display decorations for all the holidays that come in between. They seem to find a lot of space, though. When I was working at the Big K last fall, I know the Christmas stuff started coming out before Halloween, and they found enough room to display it all then.
In fact, I believe the Thanksgiving decorations started coming out before Halloween, too. Three holidays displayed at once.
People were buying it then, too. I don't know if anyone put the Christmas decorations up before Halloween, though. Maybe they were all just getting an early start. I know we were running out of some things before December, so starting early is probably a good idea.
Besides, as early as the stores bring out the new decorations, if you keep last year's up long enough, you can buy new ones to replace them before you even take them down.
Decorating for the season can be a nice thing. It's good to show your holiday spirit and it could even help others get into the spirit.
None of this is really my problem. My wife is really good at crafts and decorating, so I figure holiday decorations is her department. I don't have much to do with getting decorations up or taking them back down, although I am pretty good at giving her a bad time about it. She might not agree with my evaluation of it being her job and not mine, either.
I think she does a pretty good job, time-wise. (I definitely know she does a good job making it look good.) I can't really say how long she left them up, either. Like I say, it's not my department.
I'm not even sure how many people really know how long they've left their decorations up.
My friend who was counting Christmas wreaths with his brother-in-law dropped him off at the front door. His brother-in-law must not have gone in through the front door for a while.
After all the comments and laughter about Christmas decorations still being up that long after the holiday, he found out that the decorations were still up on his own front door.
