One of my favorite
things about the holidays is just the overall atmosphere, the feeling of warmth
and comfort associated with the Christmas season. Granted, it’s much easier to get in that
spirit after your finals are over, but
even students still obsessing over the papers they have yet to finish can find
some comfort in the holiday music wafting through the air, the lights twinkling
on overly-decorated houses, and the warm reds and greens covering everything in
sight.
One of my favorite
scenes from National Lampoon’s Christmas
Vacation is the one in which Chevy Chase is decorating the outside of the
house with lights. After he covers every
square inch, he tries to light the lights, but they won’t go on. He nearly goes ballistic trying to figure
out why they won’t light, and he takes his anger out on a poor, defenseless
Santa lawn ornament and his reindeer. It’s
a marvelous comedic moment.
When he finally gets
everything lit (with some help from his wife), however, the mood suddenly
changes. A whole choir sings Hallelujah,
and the family comes outside to bask in the beauty and blinding light from the
decorations. And everywhere else in the
city, there’s a huge power surge forcing a backup generator to be turned on,
but we can forget that in lieu of the awesome display.
The point is, there
are just some things about the holidays that bring a smile to my face, and
though sometimes it can be taken to an almost obsessive level, the lights that
people use to decorate their homes are one of those things. The brilliant glow providing illumination
amid the dark night sky is enough to make you stop and look, to appreciate the
hard work and effort put forth by the people of those homes.
It’s almost enough to
make you forget about all those giant, plastic snow globes littering the lawn.
Happy merry
everything,
Shannon
