I was driving down Germantown Ave from the Acme Market  just after dark this evening, sailing through more green lights than usual and humming Mariah Carey’s version of All I Want for Christmas for close to the 183rd time this week. The red light I finally hit was at Upsal, right at the Second Baptist’s often-changed sign board.

 

I always look forward to seeing what they’ve posted, especially the sermon titles. Sometimes they’re thought-provoking, other times, they’re… funny. Today, the sign read, “Christmas Bazaar” which I assume, in retrospect, is announcing an event, since it has a date and time..

 

However, when I stopped at the light and looked at the sign, my first response was, “It really is, isn’t it?” Bizarre. Christmas. Yes.

 

This year, more than ever and for various reasons, while shopping and driving around town, I’ve felt like a visitor from another planet observing the strange customs of the natives: songs about sleigh bells playing at the hairdresser (when is the last time you rode in a sleigh?), random people wearing pointed red furry hats with pompoms, the frantic hunting for gifts fewer than ever can afford (overheard at T-rgat & said in an angry tone: “We still need to get something for both of your brothers and your mother.” Where’s the joy?).

 

Not that there’s anything wrong with gifts–it’s just the sheer massiveness of the shoppers’ descent on all stores the last few weekends before ‘the day’–I mean, maybe the population has reached such a voluminous sum total such that there should no longer be days, anymore, where everyone is expected to do the same thing at the same time, unless it’s to stay home. Or pick up litter…or walk.

 

I do love the garish lawn displays, though, the wilder the better! I know the electric use must be tremendous but  nonetheless, they’re amazing!!

 

There’s one house, just a half block down Germantown Ave from the church, that never disappoints. This year they have, in addition to lights lining the edges of their front porch and blanketing their front bushes, a group of four lit and inflated holiday characters: a snowman, an elf, a reindeer and a candycane, all huddled together ( they may be tied so no character escapes…). There was, however, no music this year…

 

Last year, the same house had an at-least-six-foot round inflated ’snow environment’ in which lived three carolers who rotated as the ‘thing’ played christmas tunes and snow circulated in the sphere like a newly-shaken snowy paperweight. Then one day, still early in the season, this wonder world became just a sad deflated pile on the ground, possibly the victim of vandals–rarer than you’d think around here.

 

After a few days, the ‘thing’ reappeared, patched and re-inflated, up on their porch roof. However, that version, too, soon disappeared, replaced by nothing. Only the lights in their yard remained for the rest of the season. Every time I went by the house, the spot where the carolers had been in their snowy bubble, seemed more than empty.

 

So far this year, however, their current huddle remains lit and full-blown! And bizarre. In that Christmasy way.

 

Earlier in the Acme, before I saw the sign, I did look at their Christmas decorations section, all now on sale. I thought about getting a small this or that to hang or light or drape over something. But nothing caught my eye. I already have some glittering stars I like so much, from the Dollar Store (which I just discovered is gone) down the street, that I keep them up year-round. I like the white lights that are already up, even though I have some colored ones. 

 

Last night, with a crowd of Solstice celebrants, we cheered and shouted as a flaming wheel was rolled around the local UU Society’s parking lot, celebrating mid-winter’s deepest turning point, the seasonal nexus whereafter light begins to return.

 

I think I’m already feeling festive! Maybe that’s why things look more bizarre than ever. Why people seem to be doing a rote list of things, more than what they really want to do. Why people seem to have been hijacked by Christmas.

 

“I don’t want alot for Christmas. There is just one thing I need. I don’t care about the presents, underneath the Christmas tree…” humming for the 184th time, carrying the groceries in & lighting a candle on my altar.

 

A toast ~

 

To everything bizarre, wonderful, Christmasy, Solsticy.

Everything that leads to peace, to love, to understanding,

To changing the way we live until there is no more suffering than what is necessary for each of our souls to reach its highest expression.

 

Merry of merries to you,

 

Ms. SpinC