Thread: This time of year...merry?!

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320 days to go. Watching my pumpkins rot flat, outside in the back beds. Even the squirrels won't touch them anymore. Barely seven active topics at any given time here- a far cry from the active topics populating four pages deep just a short while ago. Tons of marathon extreme christmas decorating shows on when hardly any were on for halloween. Although to be fair, BOTH holidays need a new crop of those shows now. Grabbing all the christmas boxes while the halloween boxes say 'hey what about us!' I like christmas. I'm merry. But there's an empty feeling where halloween used to be. Miss it most at this time of year.

Sigh...

Soon enough.

I hear ya! We lent our wooden toe pincher to a church group who were putting on a version of A Christmas Carol (the coffin was to be Scrooge's) They dropped it off a few days ago and it's sitting on our back patio, along with a last holdout pumpkin, and some evergreen boughs my wife cut for our front porch railings. A strange scene indeed. I have some projects for next year started in the basement so I've been picking away at those and looking ahad to next year, but it does seem far away. After THe New Years, it won't be so bad. At least you won't have to say "for Halloween next year".

Last week, I was helping my wife put some Christmas decoration out, and a little boy with his father was walking in front of our house. The boys said loudly "I RATHER YOU PUT THE HALLOWEEN DECORATION INSTEAD!". We laughed and told him he must wait until next year, sadly.

Xmas doesn't bring any energy or emotion to our house. Not like Halloween does anyway. We (the wife and I) don't buy presents or go to xmas parties. We put up some lights and a tree, but that's mostly because we love to decorate our house. In the end though, it all pales to the love of fall and everything involved with it, the love of spooky thoughts, spooky movies, and most of all..... Halloween.

I am excited about one thing this xmas though. It seems like there are xmas lights up EVERYWHERE. I'm kind of hoping that due to this year was our first extreme Halloween display, and getting our bright and fairly plentiful xmas lights up early this year.... maybe we inspired our neighbors to take pride in their homes and do some decorating themselves. That thought makes feel good.

Idk, I have rather empty feeling about xmas this year. I like decorating the house too (and it looks pretty good if I do say so myself). But, everyone does it. Seriously, I think there are maybe 4 homes in my neighborhood that don't have exterior lights. Truthfully while stringing lights, I was thinking of Halloween projects. How to hide the green strings I'd put on the boxwood's so that they'd not be directly visible, thinking that the green glow they cast on the tree behind them looked rather spooky. Noting the UV in the blue on one particular string of blue LED xmas lights.

I thought back to Halloween, and realized how many didn't put 1/100th the effort they did into their xmas decor. I felt a little sad at that thought. Then I came to the realization, that I wasn't...and still am not ready for Hallowe'en to be over. You know, I just haven't gotten in the "holiday" spirit. I'd planned on stringing lights the 1st weekend of November. But every time I looked at them I found myself thinking "Bleh. Nah, I've got such and such project to work on instead". I finally got "around" to it a couple of days ago. In the meantime, nearly 2 dozen cars have stopped...or stopped and backed up to the curbside to stare at it. I do get a glimmer of satisfaction in that. But really, not in the same league as the multiple groups of adults hovering over my hell hole trying to figure out how on earth I did that effect gave me. That was satisfying, there's no doubt!

Idk, maybe xmas is just too damned common to hold my interest? Or possibly it's that there is so little creativity in most of the displays? I'm not sure, but it's certainly not able to hold my interest like our favorite day any more.


Edit/ Also, I might include that I was fairly insulted by xmas decor being in stores several weeks prior to Halloween mdse appearing on shelves. That may also be a part of it. :/

Yeah that's another thing- our block is lit up like a christmas tree. Every house has lights. They all took the time to put up their sloppy lights, but on halloween they remain totally dark. Total kill joys. Really annoying, but MY house is sure a standout. But it would be great to see SOME decorating spirit on the second biggest decorating day of the year. Screw 'em, I say.

I did put up halloween christmas tree that helped alot.
But boy all the years I have been on this board I have never seen it this dead.It slows down but this year it has come to a halt.

Funny thing is, there are plenty lurking/surfing here. But no one is posting, strangely enough. The other H'ween forums are the same atm. Few, very few posts. Many lurking in the shadows though. -v0v-

I realized one of the many reasons I don't like xmas is because every dang decoration needs to be plugged in so that limits decorating here. Halloween is so simple when one spotlight highlights a large area.

I hear you.

I often wonder what's wrong with me when I'm trimming the tree and I'm thinking of which prop I'm working on next, what to improve and how many days to Oct 31, 2012.