Inflatable Christmas

They are all around us: Frosty the Snowman, Snoopy, Christmas trees, and a great many things that don't seem like they are about Christmas at all like rabbits and other animals. They spring up from the ground as darkness falls, as timers turn on fans that inflate them with air and turn on spotlights. Inflatable Christmas has arrived. The rabbi down the street now has an inflatable Hanukiah lamp in his yard, too, having been drawn in by it all.

I enjoy Christmas greatly. I enjoy Christmas trees and especially Christmas music. We generally attend at least 2 choir events for Christmas music and sometimes do more. I listen to the music in my car and with headphones in the gym. I enjoy many of the traditions of the season, including indoor decorations, but I do not like the 'inflatable Christmas'.

It was during my childhood that outdoor decorating with lights first became really popular. Businesses had done some of that prior to those years but private homes really did not get into that in a big way until the 1960's. Prior to then there would be doors with wreaths and  light poles wrapped with greenery or ribbon and some mailboxes that were decorated but not much beyond that. Then the electric lights took hold! I at first found them novel and sometimes nice, but it began to get overdone and gaudy over time. Nowadays I refuse to put up outdoor lights as I find most of it neither attractive nor in the true spirit of the season. The inflatable things strike me as even less desirable.

I don't write this to complain about the neighbors, though. I am not offended or angry about their decorations. Perhaps it adds some joy to the season for them. I find it more sad than offensive; it just seems to miss the point for the most part. Very little of it draws your thoughts to the way the entire world was changed by the birth of a baby in a remote corner of the ancient world, and that is the only reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place.

Perhaps the enchantment with the inflatable Christmas yard decorations will pass as a fad. I hope so. It is not a huge issue but it does make me think that we have our focus in the wrong place.