My mother’s birthday only about a week and a half before Christmas. She always hated this. Unlike all my friends, whose Christmas trees were up shortly after Thanksgiving, we had to wait until after my mom’s birthday.
I know a lot of people with December birthdays feel like it gets lost in the midst of all the holiday bustle. As a kid, having to wait so late in the season felt excruciating but this was how we honored our mom.
The day after her birthday all the holiday decorations came out and we worked with gusto to transform our home into a Christmas wonderland. I loved dancing in the dark to the glow of the lights on the tree. The wait was quickly forgotten.
In reality my mom really loves Christmas with all its cheer. Many people would take down their tree right after Christmas or at least on the first of the year, but not us. My mom wanted to enjoy it, especially since it had only been up a few days. A week after the new year I would begin to feel embarrassed and ask if we could take it down but it usually didn’t come down until the end of January.
I can remember times where our tree looked more brown than green. We’d forgo turning on the lights when it got like that. I didn’t mind. It made it less obvious that our trees still showed out the front window, exposed on two side for all our neighbors to see.
The good news is my mom eventual decided it wasn’t a big deal to decorate before her birthday and I have to agree with her. Christmas lights do make the dark nights of winter feel more cheerful. I’d vote for everyone to leave their outside Christmas lights on until the end of January to brighten the season.
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