Frazz by Jef Mallett for September 23, 2024

When we bought our new house, we left the Christmas lights up year round, and told our friends to find us by just looking for the Christmas House.

No Thanksgiving decorations?

Just saw a house with Halloween decorations in their yard.

Around here, there are several houses with extra large giant skeletons (10ish feet tall) in their yards. All year ’round. One of them dresses up their skeleton variously depending on the season (and their whim, I suppose). Another has two. Sometimes they seem to be dancing with each other. The one closest to our house is just there… gradually turning grey-green from the lichen/moss. Probably the most realistic of all.

Of course it’s not exactly the same. If she doesn’t turn them on, then they’re not on display – and who cares about that?

I’m not quite sure how nor why Halloween has become such a big holiday, other than the fact that there’s money to be made from doing such a thing.

I know someone who once didn’t take down their Christmas tree in the living room till June. At that point, they may as well have left it up and said it’s just early for next Christmas.

It’s not the same

I mean, some people have Halloween lights, so….

When I was a kid, Halloween was one day, and for kids. You stopped when you were about 10 or 11. Now it’s the whole month of October – or more – and whole stores are dedicated to it.

I made a similar comment on a Nextdoor site. I got a lot of mean responses in return.

I put up orange lights yesterday to celebrate Fall, wait a week for October for a few Halloween decorations in my house. I live at the far end of a small town where the few kids who come by can still accept homemade goodies on Halloween.

Fun fact: Halloween is one of the surviving cross-quarter days, and definitely the most popular because it ties in with harvest festivals. Cross-quarter days are festivals that fall halfway between the equinoxes and solstices. If you think of the Sun’s progression through the celestial globe, it describes a circle (the ecliptic), and that circle is quartered by where the Sun is at the solstices and the equinoxes. Halfway between each of those would be the cross-quarter days. So for people using a solar calendar, these would be important.

Halloween is halfway from the northern fall equinox to the northern winter solstice, and in some traditions was actually the start of the new year, rather than midwinter as it is in ours.

Groundhog Day is actually another one; the groundhog story doesn’t actually start with Punxatawney Phil. This is halfway from the solstice to the northern vernal equinox.

May Day is halfway from the northern vernal equinox to the northern summer solstice.

The least celebrated of the four today is Lammas, August 1. Halfway from norther summer solstice to northern autumn equinox.

LOL, no, very different, but somehow the old rule about people living in glass houses seems to apply.

Not enough room in the basement to store the lights with all of the other junk.

And Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, usually falls near Halloween.

Putting up lights as the nights grow longer and darker and colder seems like a good idea to me, whatever you choose to call it. You can leave ’em up until the spring equinox.

If someone wants to have their decorations up all the time, and the neighbors/HOA is cool with it… go for it.

People make a big deal about Halloween, but they’re too afraid to go out and celebrate it.

Okay… here goes. They are not the same. Having Christmas decorations up AFTER Christmas may be a wish to keep the Holiday spirit in your heart for as long as possible. Putting up Halloween or any other holiday decorations up early, may be a wish for change, a looking ahead to new spirits or adventures. Many stories have been written about having something “written in our hearts” rather than having them only on paper.

A coworker of mine had a small Christmas tree by her desk. She decorated it for the seasons & the holidays.

Besides the Christmas decorations she had red hearts & lights for valentines Day, green lights & shamrock charms for St. Patrick’s Day, red, white & blue lights & piping for Independence Day, etc.

Boo! I Just started putting mine up this past weekend.

i once left my Christmas Tree up for 9 years

It’s pathetic that Christmas commercials always start right after Halloween, thereby trampling all over Thanksgiving. It’s as pathetic as it would be to start promoting Fourth of July before Memorial Day, or Labor Day before Fourth of July,

pointless pointing

You have to admit, though, that Christmas decorations up at Halloween is pretty scary.

The original date was more based on superstition, as a Celtic festival to keep ghosts away. The day after, November 1, was designated “All Saints Day,” and was begun to honor the saints. However, the sad part is the “adults” that have basically decided it was evil, and even interpret it that way for their children. But, if anyone asks most children what Halloween is about, the replies will most likely be the same (and very exuberant!), “Free candy!”

Lawyered.

The woman who cleans our house every other week takes vacation time around October 1 every year to decorate her house for Halloween. She really does a fabulous over-the-top job of it. I think it really takes two full days of effort. I have seen videos of the results.

One of my favorite decorations is a nearby house with a flamingo skeleton.