During the interminable winter that I lived in Yakima, Washington, my dad loaded the bed of my truck with gravel to weigh down the rear end to handle better in the snow. It drove me nuts having the gravel back there. I hate having unnecessary things in my vehicle. The gravel wasn’t a problem, but knowing it was there bugged me enough that in the middle of a 12º day in January, I couldn’t take it any longer, and I tried to shovel it out of the back of my truck. I couldn’t make a dent in the mound of gravel, though, because it was frozen solid. My dad saw me chopping at the pile with a shovel and came outside and said, “To everything there is a season.” I didn’t find that helpful. Of course, he was right, but you don’t want to hear that kind of shit when you’re pissed off and frustrated.

To Everything There Is A Season To Be Sure

Every Christmas, when I was a kid, I would ask my parents if we could leave our Christmas lights up year-round. They always said no, and I was always disappointed. One day, we went to someone’s house very much outside of the Christmas season, and I noticed they still had their Christmas lights up. I was so excited to learn that people actually left their lights up year-round, I asked if we could, too. My mom said, “Yeah, people leave their lights up year-round, but they don’t turn them on.” I was flabbergasted. Why leave them up, but off? As I got older, I learned about laziness, procrastination, and ADHD.

Now, I’m glad we never left our lights up year-round. Seasons are good. I’ve come to appreciate them. Too much of anything is not good, and seasons delineate one good or bad thing from the next and break up the year so that just as we’re getting sick of one thing, it ends so that we can look forward to it when it comes around again. If Christmas were year-round, it would only be a matter of months before it faded into the background like wallpaper and landscaping.

Alternatively, it might stand out like a sore thumb in the off-season. My mother-in-law used to listen to Christmas music year-round. She took her Christmas CDs to work and played them all day long throughout the year until she drove all of her co-workers nuts, and they complained to management, who passed a rule banning Christmas music before and after the month of December. I fully supported that decision. We have a rule in our house: No Christmas before black Friday or after New Year’s. That means no music, no movies, no decorations, and no lights. Bonnie’s mom was a huge influence in that edict with her year-round Christmas non-sense.

In 2020, during COVID, people started decorating for Halloween in August, and decorating for Christmas while they were taking down their Halloween decorations at midnight on November 1st. I was okay with it because it was a fucked up year and it was nice to see people getting into the spirit a little early. August was a bit much, but whatever, time lost all meaning that year. I am, however, quite disappointed to see that that trend didn’t die with the half-million people that COVID dispatched.

People continue, as recently as last year, to begin decorating for Halloween before Labor Day. Now that just ain’t right. Around 2023, I also noticed that people started leaving their Christmas lights up and on all year. I pointed it out to my neighbor, who said that he wouldn’t mind seeing more of that. At the time, I was ambivalent. I wasn’t really sure how I felt about it. I enjoy Christmas lights, but all year long?

So, tonight, while I was out for a walk, I counted 14 houses with lights up. Now, they weren’t all “Christmas” lights, in the traditional sense, but they are the lights that, before COVID, you only ever saw at Christmas time. It’s a trend that seems to be catching on, and I decided tonight that I cannot abide it.

Christmas lights were meant for the cold, dark weeks approaching the Winter Solstice. Seeing them all year-round spoils the specialness. And, like I said before, they start to blend into the background. Like this house, for example.

This was the first house I noticed that had year-round lights back in 2022 or 2023. I walked past it tonight. I didn’t even notice the lights. I had to walk back to get the picture. What does that say about the lights?

One of my favorite things about summertime is going to some of the better neighborhoods after dark and seeing their beautifully manicured and lit landscaping. Well-done uplighting and landscape lighting can create a sense of occasion. The combination of cool air after a hot day, the smell of wet grass and chlorine, and a well-designed outdoor lighting system gives me an indescribable feeling of nostalgia. Christmas lights don’t fit into that picture.

I’m sorry if that makes me a Grinch, but I think it’s okay to despise Christmas when the sun doesn’t set until 8 p.m. Unless, of course, you’re in Australia.