Christmas in June.

Longtime readers of this blog know that I hate to give into the temptation for Santa shaming. You know how it is. The guy next door has his outdoor lights up on New Year's... Epiphany... Martin Luther King Day... Groundhog Day... And you start to feel like he's an idiot who can't work a calendar properly.

And so do I. Yet I still try to refrain from caustic comments. After all, as I've noted before, if we believed with all our hearts in the incarnation of God among us and the salvation of the human race, wouldn't we want to celebrate Christmas all year long?

And then, yesterday, I saw this.

You can't fool me, persons with the large tree in front of your house! That's a Christmas wreath!

But I come not to scold, but to ponder. Yes, this great curiosity of mine might have made me a scientist, or a detective, or a reporter, but instead, as with last year's perpetual Christmas tree, I blow it on stuff like this.

Really, why would they still have the Christmas wreath up? They seem like an active household, although I don't go by there very often. I don't think they're all crippled or lying around dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. The wreath is just under the gutter on the second floor; perhaps they lost the pole that they used to put it up there, and no one's gotten around to going to Home Depot for another. Or the wreath could be covering a crack in the facade. Or maybe they just like it.

I could go up to the door and ask, but that would be rude. I'd rather anonymously shame them online.

It's not like they're the only ones with Christmas stuff still up, anyway. Will you look at this? Really, what are they thinking with this holiday-theme garden sculpture?

Hydranta Claus. Harrumph.