Sunday, November 2, 2014

Thanksgiving lights.

Yesterday I took down the Halloween lights and put up the Thanksgiving lights.

Okay, I don't really have Thanksgiving lights. Maybe you do. I've never seen them for sale. I kind of wish I had. I would probably buy some.

Thanksgiving gets short shrift, we all know, smushed in the middle of HalloThankChristmukkahNewYear. It's almost been reduced to a turkey and lining up for Black Friday. But I love Thanksgiving, as I know many others do. It is an adult's holidays. It is a day for gratitude. How many other holidays are just all about gratitude?

So it should be celebrated, and it should be celebrated as heartily as Halloween at least, if not Christmas.

Big problem: Thanksgiving is brown.

Christmas is green and red. Halloween is orange and black. St. Patrick's Day is green. First day of school is red and black (schools and blackboards). New Year's is white, black, and silver. Easter is anything, as long as it's pastel. I suppose it's only a matter of time before porch lights are available for all these holidays and more. But Thanksgiving is restricted to the colors of late fall, and by the end of November there are virtually no colors left. The leaves have fallen, been raked up, mulched, gone. Bare trees remain, and pine cones. Thanksgiving is brown. Who does brown lights?

Festive.
Well, there are a lot of Thanksgiving inflatables for the yard, usually turkeys dressed as Pilgrims. Amazon has a lot of this kind of thing---no strings of brown lights that I saw, but lighted garland that looks like autumn leaves. And I strongly support that kind of thing. Thanksgiving needs to get out from under the shadow of its larger brethren in October and December. Good decoration can help.

This, however, also from Amazon, is not good decoration:


Toilet turkey. Never mind its tackiness: If you ever had a Thanksgiving weekend where the turkey was toxic and everyone got sick, as I have, you'll know what a cruel, cruel joke this would be.

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