Dear Neighbors: Please Don’t Take Down Your Holiday Lights On December 26th
A plea from my household to yours
I’ve noticed a disturbing trend over the past decade or so. People start putting up their holiday decorations shortly after Halloween — and then, come December 26th, the tree’s out by the curb and all the outdoor lights are down.
This is a plea, from my house to yours. It’s the darkest part of the year, during one of the darkest times many of us have ever known. Don’t you think we could use the extra light for a bit longer?
I don’t complain as much, these days, about people putting up their trees and lights before we’d even said goodbye to All Saint’s Day. It seems like we need a little extra celebration in our lives, and if putting up your tree the first week of November is what floats your personal boat, then go for it.
But seeing a bunch of bedraggled evergreens by the curb on December 26th is just depressing (though perhaps not as much so as those inflatable yard decorations that lose their air during the day and litter suburban lawns like cartoon-colored garbage bags strewn across the grass — but that’s a story for another day).
Tearing down all your holiday decor so soon feels like you’re saying “Well, that was it —the fun’s over, enjoy the darkness” — kind of like that football star from your high school who had the best years of his life in the late 1980s and it was all downhill from there.
It feels like you’re giving up.
My request is steeped in the history of the season, too, for the traditionalists in the crowd. There’s a reason so many holidays occur this time of year, and it mostly has to do with light.
Christmas doesn’t fall on December 25th because Jesus Christ was really born in December. There are conflicting theories about how this date was chosen, and who chose it, but at least one of those theories suggests that the proximity to the Winter Solstice made it easier for Christians to convert pagans to their new religion.
Solstice celebrations, and similar traditions, celebrate the triumph of light over darkness. In ancient times, it was a way to share comfort during winters that were not only frightening but potentially deadly. After all, a poor harvest could mean starvation during the winter months.
And, in many Christian denominations, December 25th is the beginning of Christmas, not the end! The Twelve Days of Christmas, also known as Twelvetide, start on Christmas day and last through January 5th (despite what retail establishments would have us believe, with the “after-Christmas” sales that kick off December 26th).
The majority of people today don’t have to worry about starving during the winter, but it’s still a tough time for many of us, even under the best of circumstances. While Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) affects about 1 to 2% of the population, as many as 10 to 20% of us may experience less-extreme forms of winter sadness.
The holidays can come with their own special brand of anxiety and depression for many people, but they’re also a welcome distraction for many of us.
When we’re feasting and imbibing and enjoying our festive decor, we don’t have to think about the fact that the days are so much shorter and we rarely see the sun. Once we’ve witnessed the tail end of New Year’s Day, we’re left staring down what seems like an endless sea of grey and cold, especially in locales where we’re still likely to get snow in April. There’s a reason January is known, according to Compass Whole Health, as the most depressing month of the year.
So let’s leave our holiday decorations up a little longer, shall we? At least through the first week of 2023.
Kathryn Dillon is a Cleveland Heights, Ohio-based author who writes about food, music, mental health, and anything else that strikes her fancy. She resides with her husband and their very spoiled cat in a ridiculously large 1910-built home that they are slowly attempting to renovate. She is a product manager by day and holds an MBA from Roosevelt University and a BS in Magazine Journalism from Ohio University. She believes life should be lived to the fullest, and particularly loves delicious meals, baseball games, craft beer, rock concerts, art museums, and the symphony, not necessarily in that order.
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