Some of the displays were pretty good, others looked like tissue paper had been randomly glued to a flatbed trailer, but we always stayed and waited for the last float.
Once we saw that float, with Santa waving to the crowd, it was game on—we could submit our Christmas lists. Mom had a hard and fast rule that we couldn’t START Christmas until after Thanksgiving.
I’ve always loved the parade … sitting along the main street in rickety folding chairs, waiting for the chance to dive onto the pavement ahead of my brothers to grab the plastic-wrapped candy. And who were those guys driving minicars wearing funny hats with tassels on them? Even though I didn’t know who they were, I did know that sometimes they tossed out full-size candy bars! When we lived in towns that didn’t have a parade, we would watch Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV. We would sit huddled around the little black-and-white picture, wanting to be the first to spot the Snoopy balloon.
For years, I kept up the tradition with my kids—NO Christmas until after Thanksgiving. And each year, it became more and more difficult. It seemed that the catalogs and TV commercials would start arriving a week earlier every year. This year, I think I saw a Christmas commercial in September … SEPTEMBER!
Another thing has happened this year. I’ve accepted that I have to stop pretending that nothing has changed and come to grips with the fact that the holidays will be different. When I was a young mom battling the commercialism of the season and refusing to decorate or shop in October. I didn’t think about what holidays would be like in the future. In the heydays of past holidays, I prepared dinners for sixteen! And I took pride in coming up with a theme for the meals and the decorations. I haven’t done any of that in years!
As family members moved away and the old decorations were tossed and not replaced, I should have seen the signs. It’s so unlike me not to have a plan, not to have a strategy. Now, it’s just the two of us, and it’s quite possible that I won’t even go to the mall!
Is there even a mall? What happened to the shops? It’s not you, shops … it’s me. I’ve left you for Amazon Prime and free shipping. I’m feeling sad just thinking about it as I sit at my cluttered table clicking away on items to put into my shopping cart.
Last week, the time changed from Daylight Savings and now it’s dark when I drive home from work. Several houses on my street have started to hang their lights. As I drove down the street, something in me changed and a switch flipped on. I’d been telling myself it’s too much work, that it’s too expensive. But I want it, too! I want all of it! The glitter-filled glass balls, the twinkling lights … I might even get a plastic reindeer to plant next to our palm tree! Maybe that’s why stores and commercials start advertising earlier and earlier every year, for people like me who have fallen off the wagon.
So, that’s it. No more feeling sad or sorry for myself. With inspiration from Chevy Chase and his Christmas Vacation movie, I see myself, staple gun in hand, attaching the twinkle lights to our rooftop. No longer will I let Christmas decorations next to Halloween costumes make me crazy. This year, we WILL have a family Christmas, even if it is just the two of us.
I’m not going to resist … and to that I say, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”
My mother’s birthday was on December 5th. She was always shorted as a kid with the two being rolled into one. Growing up in our house is was “Nothing Christmas until after my birthday!” I took delight in decorating after Thanksgiving when I had my own home.