Charleston West Virginia

Getting Ready for Christmas

Those of you who are “avid” followers (all two or three of you) of this site may have noticed that I added a new link over in the sidebar a few weeks ago. This is purely a seasonal link which will disappear in January.

The link is to a site I discovered last January, which decries what has happened to the celebration of the Christmas season. I invite you to click on it and see what is displayed for this year.

Above is just one example from our “neck of the woods.” There are several others, including one that is not only bad, it extends over 4 adjacent yards. It looks like the neighbors have all gotten together and made tackiness a neighborhood “virtue.” I do not have a picture of it yet (though A. wants me to get one).

On our recent visit to Florida we visited Beach United Methodist Church in Jacksonville Beach on the first Sunday in Advent. Finally a church has picked up on this theme, as the entire front altar area was literally jam packed with tacky yard decorations (including Santa with sunglasses in a sleigh and holding a pink flamingo). During the service, several of the speakers apologized for the display and went out of their way to say that they were making a point. They promised the parishioners, that as the weeks of Advent went by, the tacky stuff would be removed gradually.

It did my heart good to see that someone in the church is finally beginning to recognize what new abuse our society has heaped upon this holy day.