There is a pestilence sweeping this land. Year on year, it worsens and spreads its malign influence wider. There is no escaping it. It is ... The Curse of the Creeping Christmas Candescence.
I am not a complete curmudgeon. I am looking forward to a break of a week or so off work to eat, drink and be merry (for tomorrow we diet). I enjoy presents and the glitter of Christmas decorations (although I prefer the exquisite tracings of a hoar frost on a bright winter's morn).
My cavil is with the apparent need of people to flaunt garish and crass displays outside their houses. Giant trees festooned with lights, electric icicles cycling through a stroboscopic pattern, gurning santas, inflatable snowmen and plastic reindeer.
Enough, I say! Time was, when a restrained and tasteful holly wreath might be hung on the front door for a few days either side of Christmas day. Perhaps the curtains in the front room might be drawn for a time to display a glimpse of a tree within or an advent candle burning on the window sill. Now people do not seem to be satisfied unless they are burning enough mega watts of electricity to power a small town.
Why the need for this ostentatious vulgarity from the start of December until well into the New Year? Who is going to see and appreciate these displays, apart from low flying aircraft and passing reindeer? There was a story in the news last year of a house festooned with an obscene number of lights that was a local attraction until it burnt to the ground, killing the unfortunate inhabitants in the resultant conflagration. Poetic justice, perhaps?
Bah! Humbug!
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