Monday, December 24, 2007

The Night the Lights Went Out

Last year, I skipped a holiday tradition of going to visit the three crazily decorated houses that make up the local "Holy Trinity." But tonight, I went with my family to go check in.

...only to find out that the "trinity" is now down one house. The house shown in that picture on my blog two years ago, actually. The other two were still going strong, though. One, in fact, had upped the ante in a bizarre way, by posting a giant Colorado Rockies banner (right below their faux "Star of Bethelehem," but above their "Happy Birthday Jesus" marquee) congratulating the baseball team on an amazing season. A mixed message in the extreme, if you ask me.

What happened to the third house, though, I wonder? It seems unlikely that after years of decorating, they simply would have stopped. Perhaps they simply moved away, and some other city somewhere is now enjoying their particular brand of insanity. If so, I wonder if the new home owners knew when they bought the house about the thousands of strangers that went tromping through their new home every December for more than a decade to see the hundreds of porcelain Christmas figurines on display. Did neighbors explain to them the legacy they'd bought into? Or were they happy to have "one down," and are now looking for a way to get rid of the other two houses so that "Peace on Earth" might actually come to their suburban street for Christmas one year?

In any case, traditions change over time, for whatever the reason.

Although I did just get finished watching Scrooged.

1 comment:

Roland Deschain said...

Yeah, I found that out tonight as well. Nobody seems to know what happened to the house on the corner. Although I DID find out that the Jesus/Rockies house was celebrating its FORTIETH year of decorating in the insane way it is.

And I was at least happy to see that the Rockies went below the star. Otherwise, I'd have to just shake my head in sadness...

Here's to you, crazy decoration houses - and to the merry Christmas you provide for Xcel Energy.

Merry Christmas all!!!