Many Wichitans smartly put up their outdoor Christmas lights and decorations while the weather was warm. But would they mind waiting until after we celebrate Thanksgiving before turning the lights on? Especially when Thanksgiving is so early this year. It’s bad enough that some retailers put out Christmas items before Halloween, and that a Wichita radio station has already started playing Christmas carols.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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39 Comments
Mr. Brownlee:
Don’t you start “War on Christmas” already! I will turn on my lights whenever I want, even if it’s right after Fourth of July.
:)
Dont get your Crow in an uproar, Roo-ster… The only war on Christmas will come from O’Reilly, just like last year, and the year before!!
I never took mine down last year… Too much hassle putting them back up again!! LOL
Hey, the Salvation Army already has bell ringers out in force!! I thought that was early myself!!
I don’t want to see christmas lights before christmas season either. However, I did put up lights for my grandparents, but only as a practical means. She’s nearly blind and the bright runway style lights down her sidewalk help her in and out of the house when it is dark. The regular solar lights are not bright enough.
I put my lights on my house this past weekend (only to not put them up in the cold). That doesn’t mean that I’ve plugged them in though (our family puts everything up on “Black Friday”). That crap drives me bananas. Why don’t we make all of these holidays into one month long Roman-style festival? We could call it Saturnalia. I suppose putting Kwanzaa lights up wouldn’t be that bad, I’d go for that. BTW, what do you actually do for Kwanzaa?
The light and tasteful spattering of lights are attractive. It is the monster attrations with the thousands of flickering lights and trashy blow-up ornaments/decorations littering the neighborhoods that I find objectionable. If I wanted to live in an amusement park I would move to Topeka – or Vegas.
Why not just ask the city council for a LAW preventing it? After all, they are considering a LAW against smoking, a LAW dealing with videos, a LAW about damn near everything else in our lives.
George Orwell was right..he was just a little early. There are no freedoms left..just a few minor decisions and they will be taken away as well.
Instead of putting up lights, I use the extra money that I would have spent on electricity or lavish gifts and send it to local charities where people are fed and clothed.
Having that extra food on the table or a warm coat to me would be more important than blinking and flashing lights.
Oh, I do send really cheap Holiday cards though. :)
Heck, there are some people that turn on their christmas lights every night of the year. It gets old to see christmas lights all year long.
I try to put up my lights to turn them on the day after thanksgiving and turn them off in January the after Epiphany, Jan. 6th.
If we had Xmas year ’round I woundn’t mind…I love ths time of year!!As far as Xmas lights vs charitable giving, why not both? I not only decorate my home, I decorate my patient’s homes..it gets everybody in the holiday mood!
I decorate my home Mary, but on the inside with static displays. Oh and a wreath on the door.
I just think it’s better to give to charity rather than foolishly waste electricity that cannot be recovered.
Christmas lights will all be banned!
They waste energy and contribute to Global Warming.
Public displays of Christianity will not be allowed!
The ice caps are melting, the polar bears are drowning, and the ocean levels are rising. Just ask Cosmos.
Kansas, we’re using the LED lights this year..they’re supposed to be 90% more energy efficent and they don’t heat up the way traditional lights do.Do you buy Xmas presents? Or do you consider that a waste of energy too? Life is short Kansas, don’t be a humbug..you can enjoy all the trimmings of Xmas AND give to all the charities you want..that’s what I love to do.
Life is short, so don’t worry about Global Warming?
Do you buy Xmas presents? Or do you consider that a waste of energy too? Life is short Kansas, don’t be a humbug..you can enjoy all the trimmings of Xmas AND give to all the charities you want..that’s what I love to do.
Posted by: Mary Caruso | November 21, 2007 at 09:00 AM
We buy Christmas presents, but exchange names and limit the dollar amount spent.
Melting down the credit card or going broke during a Christmas buying spree never seemed the proper thing to do. :)
I have thousands of lights.
I put them up when the kids were littler.
Now? Well for one I aint as young as I used to be. Crawling around on a 40 degree grade roof in ANY weather aint for me anymore. Too? The energy consumption seems a waste in money and at odds with my environmental convictions.
I note these last few years a decline in houses with lights. I think many may feel as I do.
I’ll probably put out just a few. I DO find them cheery.
Christmas is under attack from Gobblers!
I think the world would be a better place instead of maxing out their credit cards, and literary fighting over cheap toys/tvs at 4:00 Am the day after thanksgiving at walmart. If people made gifts to charity you can even give in someones name as a gift for them. Not worrying about Gifts, lights, and all the other goddy displays would certainly help with the stress that many people suffer at Christmas
Only problem, would probably tip us into a recession. Or, at the very least the stock market would tank, even further than it has. But, from what I’ve read, people aren’t in a very optimistic spending mood these days anyway.
Since tomorrow is thanksgiving, I think its Ironic that the Pilgrims didn’t celebrate Christmas because it was to “Pagan”
I figured this would be some green nonsense about “conspicuous consumption”.
How dare you Mary!
How dare you reduce the birth of our Christ to a big “X”.
X-mas is NOT the reason for the season.
I will be telling Santa to send you a lump of coal.
It isn’t just having the lights on early that can be irritating. As Phillip said, Christmas carols have begun on a radio. I just discovered B98 is “All Christmas, All Day, until Christmas”. And I started hearing Christmas songs in a store at least two weeks ago.
Give me a break. A month of Christmas, from Dec. 1 to Jan. 1 is more than enough. Talk about over-saturation. And we wonder why people are grumpy by Christmas Eve.
But then that’s my opinion. If you want to light your entire block starting now, that’s your choice. Don’t expect a lot of oohs and ahhs from me.
Well leave it to the anti-Christian liberal press and the WEBLOG to demand MANDATED conformity on the lighting of Christmas lights.
The socialist agenda just never seems to end.
Goooooooooooooo Hillary!!!Goooooooooooooo Bill!!
So Kansas is a evil “green” liberal for not hanging up lights?
Ew citisins must naught display signs of any kind other than our own flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black swastika in the middle.
Zee citisins vill provide adequate lighting for our flag and will provide lights at the proscribed times.
It must be displayed on each home and business.
Zieg Heil Brownlee!!
I love the season even though I’m not Christian…it’s a time to get together with family and catch up with friends, to get caught up in the grandchildren’s excitement, and a time for reflection and counting our blessings. I love that it starts early…and we don’t celebrate with our kids until January..that way there is no pressure to choose between our family and the in-laws or to try and be everywhere with everyone on Xmas day. It’s very relaxing and I get to do most of my shopping during the after-Xmas sales…plus we get to keep our Xmas tree up until mid January!
I think these early decorations have nothing to do with the worship of Christ but everything to do with the worship of Mammon. Just what do reindeer etc have to do with the teachings of Christ.
If churches are already preparing for the celebration of the Birth I don’t think anyone is complaining. What we are seeing has nothing to do with that.
And you point Ben? Tis the season for giving right? You gotta buy to give. A little commericalism is good for America, especially with all the bargains foreign shoppers are finding here.
Profits are good for business and investors.
The more profits and capital gains, the more taxes. The more taxes, the more available to redistribute to the poor and less fortunate.
So you object to the early commercialism of the Christmas Holiday, and therefore want to legislate using your moral rationale when the CHRISTmas lights should be turned on?
It is wrong to turn on our CHRISTmas lights early because…………….?
By the way, you all, it wasnt a bunch of mis-directed liberals who were the first ones to BAN christmas… It was a large segment of the Pilgrims, who believed it was a waste of good working time, to take a day to celebrate christmas, unless it happened to fall on a sunday, and then their sunday laws took effect.
It was the conservative Pilgrims who first BANNED christmas in this new world… not liberals!!
Just remember that little tid bit, when some of you go off on a tangent about liberals and christmas…
I am a liberal… and i LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!!! My favorite Season of the year!!
And remember — there is NOTHING to prohibit you from saying “MERRY CHRISTMAS” in the public shopping areas… So, lets hear it — MERRY CHRISTMAS!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!(There is more than one, thank you very much)
AND THE PEACE OF THE SEASON BE YOURS!! HAPPY THANKSGIVING TOMORROW!!
Chas, you are so full of shit I am drowning in it. I have my pant legs rolled up as far as they will go.
Like you KNOW the pilgrims and their political party?
Did they register as republican or democrat back then in their cities or at the county courthouse?
I mean the constitution and declaration of independence being a 150 plus years in the future.
Did they have to show a photo id at the time too?
Just wondering.
I’m still waiting for an apology, Pat. You stated on another thread that I don’t work, that my husband only makes 18,000 a year, and insinuated that I’m on welfare.Do you come to this forum just to attack and slander people? If so, please go somewhere else, we don’t need you here.
I doubt that the pilgrims were liberals, Pat..seeing how they’d put someone in stocks for the most insane resasons and burned women at the stake, believing they were paracticing witchcraft…not exactly a liberal’s slant on life.
Happy Thanksgiving, Chas! It’s so nice to read your posts, even though I don’t agree with you sometimes, you have a positive attitude and are not here just to attack people, like some bloggers I don’t even have to name.
Mary,
Are you kidding me? Chas might not be here “just” to attack people, but he sure doesn’t hold back when he does.
Unlike some of you that are ONLY here to attack others who don’t see things the way you do.
As usual, Pat won’t respond when called on the carpet. I’m still waiting for a retraction and an apology…guess I won’t hold my breath.
Well Phil… I agree hearty with you. I believe that we need to celebrate Thanksgiving then Christmas… you really can’t put the two together.. Happy Thanksgiving!! gobble, gobble
I think I’ll aim for multi-gift again this year. The Dutch side of the family celebrate gift-giving on Nicholas, Dec. 6, the American side wait until 24th, and that Russian neighbours of ours always celebrated their Christmas late, anyway. Hm, Calvin and Hobbes would like this “Christmas Looting” three times in a row… Ah, to be young again and getting all the big boxes under the tree! :)
Now that Thanksgiving dishes have been cleared, let me say Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it, and Happy Holidays to the other revelers!
Seriously. Theres a douchebag in my neighborhood who put on his lights before October, and now they haven’t been on the past 2 days. Wish I had the guts to cut them while they were on.