Yes, we still have houses on my block that haven't taken down Halloween decorations yet, and the one house just purchased by a young family is all decked out for Christmas. They don't have nearly as many lights as I will have, but I will wait until later to put them up, and as usual, turn on the lights on Thanksgiving Day. This comic is from Zack at Last Place Comics. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
When I was growing up, it was a custom/tradition in our house that when one of our family had their birthday, one of the birthday treats was that they got their choice as to what would be for dinner that night (within reason, of course). My favorite was spaghetti with Mom's home-made from semi-scratch sauce (she used canned tomato sauce and tomato paste), the making and simmering of which was an all-day process. My dad's favorite was beef and kluski noodles, made in a Presto pressure cooker – again, a very time-consuming process between browning the beef and the other prep work.
ReplyDeleteNow the thing is, both my birthday and my dad's were in November ... his was the 23rd, and mine is the 27th. And then, of course, there was Thanksgiving in there somewhere (sometimes even on the same day as one of the birthdays!), with the 20-plus pound bird, the sweet potatoes, the mashed potatoes, the giblet gravy, a veggie like corn or peas, and all the rest of the trimmings to fix up and serve.
Needless to say, Mother didn't begin to even THINK about Christmas until after she had put all of this in her rear-view mirror.
-"BB"-
My Christmas light decorating will start around the 18th this year and the weather dependent goal is to be done by Thanksgiving. Happens once in a while but it usually takes until Thanksgiving weekend to finish. Regardless, the earliest the lights will ever go on is Thanksgiving Friday.
ReplyDeleteAnd I set a personal record for 'deconstructing' Halloween this year: 2 1/2 days. Sometimes that takes a week or more.
I live in a country far, far, away and in a time ahead of yours.
ReplyDeleteWe here, obviously primitive people, don't have a thing called Thanksgiving.
Nor whatever the headless guy on a white horse symbolises ... Hogwarts Day maybe ?
Halloween and Christmas, yes both, for we too are a Christian based country (don't get me started on the government's allowed influx of different religion based immigrants ... but since you did, it is the same as letting the opposing English football team's hooligan supporters into the home team's school/bar/town square ... there IS going to be trouble, history have shown us time and time again that belief in different made up gods, or at least which version of book they 'abide' by, leads to death and destruction in the most bloody and horrible way ... but when you speak up against immigration you get labelled racist and bigoted ... rather than full of common sense).
Focus, William, focus .... we have people, mainly in more affluent suburbs, they go all out with Christmas decorations ... Franklin Road in Ponsonby, Auckland the most famous, it being an inner city suburban street on which near every house is a mini Las Vegas ... and the street, bearing downhill to the city centre, has views of the city and its lights itself ... truly a spectacle ... apart from the masses of cars clogging the road, lol ... I recommend taking a walk down about 11 pm, less vehicles and the lights are all still on.
But me, I'm the guy who walks his own road, so at my house I string lights up on my bottlebrush tree, on my fence, and my roof ... my house looks like and ocean liner, one of those flash cruise ships that pollute the dolphins' world ... but I do it in August, the middle of winter here, with the lights getting turned on on the day of my birthday ... although my neighbours don't know its my birthday, they just think I do it to cheer people up in the doldrums of chilly winter.
Christmas comes here in the heat of summer, rather than snuggle up in front of a Bong Crosby movie with a hot toddy, we are mostly out at the beach, with the sun glinting off the tops of the waves, and sand getting in the cucumber sandwiches.
Bong Crosby !
ReplyDeleteSpeed typist and there is no edit button afterwards.
> less vehicles
ReplyDeleteFewer vehicles
It's your language; learn it.
William, the headless guy on a horse is the Headlesss Horseman, from the American story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. It's so scary it became associated with Halloween here. You should watch the movie.
ReplyDeleteI suggest you read – or re-read – Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". The 'Headless Horseman' character got lumped into Halloween because in the story, all that was found at the scene of the attack was "the hat of the unfortunate Ichabod, and close beside it a shattered pumpkin. (emphasis mine)
ReplyDeleteAnd the Disney animated cartoon of the same name even had the afore-mentioned specter actually throwing a pumpkin, carved and lit up like a jack-o-lantern, at Ichabod Crane to cause his demise and disappearance.
-"BB"-
Sometimes, I really wish we could post images with our comments. Or gifs. Especially gifs. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a gif - that and a thousand laughs methinks. Just a somewhat random thought.
ReplyDeletePeople here usually wait until after Remembrance day to put things up, although the stores are getting earlier and earlier with their xmas displays. Saw some in august.
ReplyDelete