The Christmas Decorator Hater

War on Christmas? Is the media really rallying in all the Christmas experts, politicians and religious groups to fight about Christmas?! Is this yearly battle really worth the fight while the world is filled with wars on drugs, terror, freedom, and poverty? America and our war on Christmas...can't we just keep our bah humbugs to ourselves and move on our merry Christmas (or not so Christmas) way?


  Well, while the Christmas war is up and running with holiday spirit ornament bombs, I'm whistling about, decorating trees and stockings, making Alamo gingerbread houses, and preparing for a spiked eggnoggie Christmas day. I'm not doing this for any reason besides the fact that I love what Christmas is made of: family and shiny Christmas decor. 

Due to the hundreds of songs, movies, stories, and books out there on what Christmas is truly about, I don't want to go over that same redundant story...for the sake of redundancy. But seriously, even the Grinch grasped the meaning of Christmas! "What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more." If a green and hideous Dr. Seuss cartoon character can get it, so can the rest of America.

Take a deeper look into Christmas. Take away the religious aspect, the son of God's birthday. Throw out the Santa Claus and the Rudolf and the elves. Take back to the store the masses of useless gifts and put back into your wallet all that unnecessarily wasted money. Strip Christmas down to its bare meaning, detaching the Christ or the X from their friend and dear suffix, mas. In fact, erase the mas...we clearly don't need more of anything.


Zoom in and strip away even more, to the bare butt essentials. All that's left?
The decor. The lights to dazzle your eyes and warm your soul. The pine tree to fill your nose with holiday scent. The glittery ornaments and the comfort of your family while decorating together on a gushy, fun-loving, tingly feeling December night. Or the night after Thanksgiving, for those impatient holiday lovers. Even if you're a Grinch, a Stooge, a Bad Santa, or a Bill O'Reilly, you can't say you don't like all those pretty Christmas lights quietly twinkling up and down your neighborhood.


Unfortunately, there seems to be a shortage of Christmas decorations this December in Austin, Texas. In the recent past, Christmas shone across the Austin city limits with bright lights of every color and size. The Trail of Lights carried you across Zilker park with thousands of lights to gasp and awe you over and over again. The trail took you on a massive, spectacular light extravaganza, and ended at the Zilker Tree, where spinning under Austin's original Moonlight Tower has been a long standing Austinite tradition. Today, all that's left is the tree. Big and beautiful as it is, the death of the Trail of Lights is heartbreaking. 

 The Trail of Lights is not the only traditional city Christmas decoration to be unplugged and thrown into the Christmas tree box. Due to lack of funds, Christmas lights that ran all the way down to the Capitol on Congress Avenue, a tradition that began decades ago, are gone. 37th Street (at Guadalupe) was a full block covered in Christmas decorations and lit up by night, shining true to the Austin weirdness. Today? My neighborhood in Pflugerville, Texas, has more to show! New neighborhood residents didn't catch on to the nearly 30 years of Christmas traditional lighting on 37th Street, and it's turned into a pitiful sight compared to previous years. 

Come on, Austin! Even Little Rock's Capitol building has got some Christmas spirit!

War on Christmas? The depletion of Austin's Christmas magic? Can't we all gather around and fix this Charlie Brown Christmas? All I'm asking for is a little decor. Some colorful bulbs. A few more shiny ornaments.  Brighten Austin, warm our wintry souls. I'm not asking to hold hands and sing "Fahoo fores, Dahoo dores!"

Happy Christmas, everybody ^^   -NANA