We have yet to take down all of our Christmas decorations, and it's got me worried.
I believe federal law requires all Christmas decorations to be stowed away by Jan. 1 unless there is a good bowl game on TV or someone offers to make you sausage biscuits, or both.
I don't remember either one of those things happening this year, and yet the Christmas decorations, or at least some of them, remain stubbornly unstowed.
Don't get me wrong. We are not the kind of people whose icicle lights still hang from our gutters on Memorial Day. We do not have any icicle lights; they all burned out last Fourth of July.
There are perfectly valid reasons why people haven't gotten around to taking down their Christmas decorations:
>> In coma from watching too many Republican presidential debates.
>> Busy cancelling that Italian cruise.
>> Bonked on head by Martian meteorite.
>> Ladders not safe.
>> Why bother? Next Christmas is only 10 months away.
>> Fear of attics.
>> Mayan calendar says we're going to die either way.
A friend from out of town visited our house a couple of days ago. He looked around and said: "I see you still have your Christmas stuff up." He said that with the kind of inflection one might use if saying, "I see you still keep the dismembered bodies in your freezer."
His wife, of course, takes down her Christmas decorations immediately after Christmas, as if the little illuminated snowmen would somehow transform, on Dec. 26, into an army of angry, under-capitalized Greek bankers demanding better credit ratings. (Truth be told, she might be on to something.)
Me, I'm kind of a go-with-the-flow guy. Christmas, and the weeks leading up to it, can be awfully hectic. Why add to the pressure by setting an artificial deadline for taking down the decorations?
I say it's a personal choice. If you want to take your decorations down immediately after Christmas, fine. But if you want to leave them up a little longer, that's fine, too.
Though, honestly, if your decorations are still up come Labor Day, you've probably waited too long.
Contact the writer: dvd.grimes@yahoo.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
