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Cellar Scribblings
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on January 07, 2020, 07:03:07 pm ---I've always felt a Christmas tree looks a little sad December 26. :(
--- End quote ---
I definitely think the tree belongs there through at least Jan. 1. I see it as part of the holiday season festivities as much as it is about Christmas specifically (my own has a Happy New Year crown at the top). I'm usually not quite ready to relinquish it until a week or so after that.
Outdoor lights that aren't extremely Christmas-themed can stay up through January at least.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on January 07, 2020, 09:33:43 pm ---I definitely think the tree belongs there through at least Jan. 1. I see it as part of the holiday season festivities as much as it is about Christmas specifically (my own has a Happy New Year crown at the top). I'm usually not quite ready to relinquish it until a week or so after that.
--- End quote ---
In the past I've kept my tree and all decorations--especially my grandmother's Nativity set--till Epiphany. This year I just wanted everything to go away as quickly as possible.
--- Quote ---Outdoor lights that aren't extremely Christmas-themed can stay up through January at least.
--- End quote ---
I agree, and that is why I felt so bad about not getting the plain white lights on the pine tree in front of my dad's house. I feel outdoor lights help brighten things up at night during the darkest time of the year.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on January 08, 2020, 09:55:59 am ---I agree, and that is why I felt so bad about not getting the plain white lights on the pine tree in front of my dad's house. I feel outdoor lights help brighten things up at night during the darkest time of the year.
--- End quote ---
I agree. I think of them less as a holiday custom than as a holdover from ancient pagan traditions (the pagans never used LED lights, however).
brianr:
I had purchased 3 sets of solar lights over the years I have lived in NZ but had not put them up for several years. I put them up in the trees the weekend before Christmas but with sunset at 9.30 which about the time I go to bed, it was not until Christmas Eve, coming home from midnight mass that my suspicions that they were not working were confirmed. I took them down on Boxing Day but left them on the table until Tuesday when we finally had a bright sunny day (Summer is yet to arrive here). I left them out on the lawn for a few hours then tested them. One is still working and has been put away, the other two are in the bin.
I had an artificial aluminium Christmas tree but do not know if I threw it out or sold it in a Garage sale before migrating to NZ. I had not put it up since the 80's. We had live Christmas trees when I was a kid but probably not since the early 60's. As always, I took down my 4 Christmas ornaments on Jan 6, takes less than 5 minutes. Longer is putting away the Christmas cards and rereading the yearly letters which I file away. But they are getting less now as more use email but you cannot put email up on the mantelpiece. I posted 15 cards and got 12 back. I sent about 20 email messages.
brianr:
I just received my 14th card today from Paul in Honolulu. He did post it a few days before Christmas. He emailed to say he received mine on 27 December.
He mentions he may visit me in March on his way to Sydney. I do hope so. He has visited me twice before in Dunedin with his (now) husband. Matt is a native Hawaian and a ship entertainer. He usually plays on the Gay cruise which (not every year) travels from Auckland to Sydney for Gay Mardi Gras. I am not sure if that is what Paul means this year. I will have to look it up. They visited me a few weeks after I moved to Dunedin in 2010. I had bought my house but had not taken possession so they looked at it over the front fence. We had lunch at the beach front cafe and then I drove them over the peninsula. I remember Matt falling asleep despite the stunning scenery but then he was entertaining late at night on the ship. Then they came again a year or so later and insisted paying for me to tour the Cadburys Factory (now closed). I was going to wait outside for them. Inside we met more gays from the ship and he had them in stitches describing how I had been his teacher and helped him come out. It was 1979 and I was only coming out myself. In 2018 I met him for lunch in Sydney and there was another guy there who had gone to junior hihg school with him (I taught Paul in Senior High). They were discussing how they would dress uo in Paul's mothers clothes after school. There was roar of laughter by the group when I commented "You say I helped you come out Paul, I do not think you needed much help". Paul is over the top camp but such a loving guy. He is a psychiatric nurse in Honolulu. Strangely despite having all his schooling in Australia, he does not have Australian citizenship. He was born in Ireland and has now taken out American citizenship. I could go on with tales of Paul at school and at the class reunion about 15 years ago when he rushed over to the staff table and said "Brian , the gay guys are having their photo taken, come and join us" It was the class of '79 so I had only known Paul as being gay and there were half a dozen in the photo besides us and not all of the staff would have known about me as it was not common knowledge in the school until a few years later. Matt came to Dunedin another time on a gay cruise without Paul. He asked me to take him to the Penguin sanctuary so I picked him up at the ship and he brought along two of the passengers. Two beautiful Chinese Americans who were doctors in San Francisco. They bought me lunch in city afterwards.
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