Christmas lights on palm trees, a very Arizona Christmas.
Winter time in
many locales is usually infused with brown as the primary color in the
surrounding scenery; trees are hanging out naked, the last few leaves to jump
from their limbs huddle at the base patiently waiting for the first leaf
blower of spring. Your lawn takes on the color of the walls of your first low
budget apartment, producing the sound of walking on a bed of corn flakes in your daily trek to investigate the postman’s offerings of more flyers and
promises to save you money on your car insurance.
Of course you could
be lucky enough to have Santa deliver a blanket of snow for the holiday season,
no doubt your opinion of the word luck determined by how thick that blanket is
and whether or not the snow blower has enough gas on hand to allow you to make it
possible to see the driveway again before spring time. Of course, not everything is a dull shade of
brown or dusty white, if there are evergreens populating your home turf. There
is nothing quite like snow on evergreens, unless you happen to be standing
beneath one when gravity decides it is time to free itself from its winter
coat.
Winter, no
matter where you live brings to mind images of warm socks, thermal duds, and sitting in front of a crackling fireplace sipping something hot, either toddies or
cocoa, whichever way your pleasure tends. We actually do that in Arizona, winter is
winter, and desert cold is cold even if you think 50 is not. My friends from
back East laugh at me when I tell them it’s cold here. I've realized cold is a
relative term. If you live in a place
where the summer high is in the neighborhood of 85-90, and you drop the
temperature 65-70 degrees, that’s kind of cold; not the “It’s so cold I’m going
to die and it feels like there’s a porcupine in my nose’ type of cold. It’s
just cold period. In this part of Arizona the summer highs typically get to
110-115 and if you drop the temp here 65-70 degrees that is going to feel
cold. That’s winter just being winter.
Winter also brings
thoughts of the holiday season to come; the snap in the morning air becomes a
bit snappier after the goblins disappear from our sidewalks and plans turn to
important things, like who can’t sit next to each other at Thanksgiving
dinner. By the time the last of the
leftovers have finally disappeared from the fridge, Christmas decorations have
been dragged from the attic or shed and begun to make appearances in our environs,
including the dreaded strands of Christmas lights.
Simple elegance.
Shrek the Halls, or the front yard
In backyards and
garages, on porches and patios everywhere, innocent Christmas lights become victims
of a stream of vitriol usually reserved for the driver that hurries to get in
front of you so he can go slow. This is done no doubt in the expectation that
swearing at that rats nest of lights will magically cause them to untangle themselves before they swath
the house in Christmas cheer for the coming weeks. Have no fear, those sturdy
strands of blinking beauty can handle a few cuss words; all they want to do is
show off and they do it oh so well.
My first ever sighting of a reindeer with a parachute.
A cul-de-sac offering
In Arizona,
where brown is virtually a year round color scheme, the fall and winter months
are when we start to see color, especially around Christmas time. Christmas lights are much more prevalent here
than what I remember from the cold Northeast.
I've decided it has to be because it’s much more comfortable putting up
lights when its 55 degrees outside as opposed to 25; no doubt when you’re hands
aren't stiff with cold it’s a tad bit easier to really go all out. This is a sprawling
city, filled with neighborhoods often built like a giant cul-de-sac, each
containing a several smaller ones within their borders. It is apparent the residents of that cul-de-sac either get together to simply entertain or try to outdo the others
in their semi-circle in the city. The light displays are impressive, whether
they are simple and whimsical or garish and garbled, they have an inherent ability
to bring out the season. Seeing Christmas lights wrapped around a palm will
always make me giggle; I guess I‘m just an old Yankee and still associate Christmas
lights with evergreens not desert plant life. I make a point to look for
someone both brave and foolish enough to put Christmas lights on a cactus; it’s
not impossible though removal time must be fraught with prickly consequences.
The group of lights in the back are in a tree that's tough to see in the pic. It looks like someone stood on the roof and threw them into the tree.
The main drag in Gilbert, Arizona
My wife and I
enjoy looking at Christmas lights and finally decided to take some pictures
this year, which are included here. We had a lot of fun driving around looking for
interesting displays; the time just melted away. We made a special trek to see if the little
farm we were married at was lit up for the hoiliday; alas there we no lights lit at our
special place. As we gazed out the
windows on our trek homeward what to our wondering eyes did appear, but a dune buggy
lit up with Christmas cheer. A hasty pursuit culminated in a parking lot filled
with more buggies lit to celebrate the season, some in the process of being
loaded for home. We interrupted a couple
and their teenage son as they were beginning the process of loading their buggy
on a trailer. They were both gracious enough to stop and talk to us for a few
minutes.
Just a few of the buggy light parade.
The wife told us
that the group started about 7 years ago with just a handful of folks getting
together to decorate their buggies and ride around town. Over the past several
years it has grown to the point where 60 buggies joined in for this year’s
night time light parade. We stopped to grab a few pics. It was a really neat
way to end our Christmas light trek through the city.
I've lived out
here in the desert the past 20 years and Christmas still manages to sneak up on
me, probably due to the fact snow is never in the forecast during this time of
year. Seeing Christmas lights adorning houses, lampposts and palm trees is
usually what it takes to get me in the Christmas spirit; Christmas lights on
palm trees will never cease to make me smile.
This year seemed to fly by, don’t they all the older you get, this year I decided to put some thoughts of the season down on paper, or at least something approaching paper. My
wish for you all is your Christmas was the merriest of all and the New Year
brings success, love, good health and happiness.
This was the find of the night with video below as a perfect compliment.
I saved this
for last. Turn the sound up on the video. We had the car radio tuned to a
station playing Christmas music; timing as they say is everything.
