Three days to the light
Dec. 19th, 2023 01:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
resoluteI grew up with colored, flashing, Christmas lights.
I am old enough that I remember the larger bulbs, the ones that got hot and we couldn't leave the tree on more than an hour or two at a time. Real Christmas tree + very hot lights = unacceptable fire risk. When I was a young teen we switched to the current form factor mini-lights. Still colored light! Still flashing, but not the modern speed flashing, more of a gentle on .... off .... on .... off. Around that time we also added lights around the inside of the front windows.
For a few years, there, my family had some divorce-related making-do around the holidays. I went to college and moved out, and for eight years my partner and I adhered to the Jewish holidays. I still went home for Christmas, and the light were colored and slowly flashing.
That's the tree my mother still has, and I love it.
When my current partner and I set up our Christmas traditions, well, my partner has very strong feelings about white, non-flashing, lights. And I had to think about it -- did I care? Was I committed to the multi-colored light strands of my family of origin?
I was not.
We established our holiday traditions and carry them forth to this day. The tree is decorated in ornaments that are meaningful to each of us, with white strands of (now LED) mini-lights, in the warm white thank you very much, and they do not flash at all.
We turn the tree on first thing in the morning, before the tea kettle. And we open the front curtains, even though it is still dark at 7:00 a.m. The lights stay on until the last person awake goes to bed.
Sixteen hours a day, more or less, the light of the tree shines bright.
I am old enough that I remember the larger bulbs, the ones that got hot and we couldn't leave the tree on more than an hour or two at a time. Real Christmas tree + very hot lights = unacceptable fire risk. When I was a young teen we switched to the current form factor mini-lights. Still colored light! Still flashing, but not the modern speed flashing, more of a gentle on .... off .... on .... off. Around that time we also added lights around the inside of the front windows.
For a few years, there, my family had some divorce-related making-do around the holidays. I went to college and moved out, and for eight years my partner and I adhered to the Jewish holidays. I still went home for Christmas, and the light were colored and slowly flashing.
That's the tree my mother still has, and I love it.
When my current partner and I set up our Christmas traditions, well, my partner has very strong feelings about white, non-flashing, lights. And I had to think about it -- did I care? Was I committed to the multi-colored light strands of my family of origin?
I was not.
We established our holiday traditions and carry them forth to this day. The tree is decorated in ornaments that are meaningful to each of us, with white strands of (now LED) mini-lights, in the warm white thank you very much, and they do not flash at all.
We turn the tree on first thing in the morning, before the tea kettle. And we open the front curtains, even though it is still dark at 7:00 a.m. The lights stay on until the last person awake goes to bed.
Sixteen hours a day, more or less, the light of the tree shines bright.
no subject
Date: 2023-12-19 08:35 pm (UTC)My family had bubble lights as soon as they came in, and my mom still has some, though most of them don't work any more. We still put them on her tree, which I ineptly decorated yesterday -- her vision and dexterity aren't what they were, so I have to do it; I kept moving things around and putting more things on and my brother kept saying, "It's a tree, it has shiny things, it's respectable." I know how I'd do it next year and I hope she's there to supervise.
ANYWAY, we also need to replace the bubble lights because to my in some ways yet-unjaded eyes, they are just awesome and light up the dark in just the right way.
P.
no subject
Date: 2023-12-20 12:17 am (UTC)