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Wrapping paper
I hope they come up with some. Wrapping paper seems to be a thing of the past, largely replaced by bags. Wrapping presents used to be fun and festive, now people just shove things into boring bags resembling shopping bags. I don't know about the so-called "war on Christmas" but two things that are fading fast are wrapping paper and festive colored lights which have been replaced by bland white lights. When did that start? What's so Christmas-y or holiday-ish about plain white lights? Go to Faneuil Hall or any restaurant with an outdoor patio or and you can see those same white lights all year round.
i know, right? freakin' socialist plot to undermine ...
the very foundations.of our judeo-christian-kwanzaa-consumer civilization
"War," bags, lights
If you "don't know about the so-called 'War on Christmas,'" why bring it up? Christmas doesn't appear to be in danger of disappearing anytime soon.
Bags? Maybe they are prevalent for the same reason take out food and frozen dinners are: little time and many demands for most people. I'd rather have a home-cooked meal from scratch every night, but don't have the time or energy to pull it off. Way back when (before decades of a full time job, husband, long commute, etc.) I used to love wrapping Christmas presents. Now I mostly order online and have them shipped or put them in the expedient re-usable gift bag. Not ideal, but it gets the job done.
Colored lights? Tastes and fashions change. You can see them on the Christmas trees on Macy's roof downtown. What's Christmas-y about white lights? It could be argued that they are more festive--referencing the Christmas Star, the "Light of the World," etc. Weren't the original Christmas lights candles? That would be more white light than red, green and blue.
You want to see multi-colored lights and wrapping paper? There's no shortage of either. Go get some and represent! You could event buy some paper and take it to the shelter and show them how it's done.
Christmas lights were first candles.
Later becoming white/clear bulbs.
It wasn't until later that things got colorful
So, in essence, you're tacky version of christmas lights is a 'War on REAL Christmas Lights'.
I agree with you about
I agree with you about wrapping paper vs. bags. I always block off a day to wrap. I get special ribbon, the fabric kind, and make each package unique. Play the Christmas music, have on a Christmas movie and a glass of wine.
I always make sure others know when my day is, so there's no interruptions and no peeking.
It is one of my personal favorite days of the season, and I get it all to myself.
Been doing this way since I was a kid (without the wine).
Couldn't agree more, Patricia
Couldn't agree more, Patricia. It makes Christmas much merrier!
Most of the gifts I've ever
Most of the gifts I've ever received have been wrapped.
And I've noticed more, not less colored lights in recent years. I actually prefer white lights.
I put up some extra strings
I put up some extra strings of colored lights , LED style , for the kids ,really...........
When I was a kid you could
When I was a kid you could only find big tutti frutti Christmas lights which were an abomination to my European immigrant parents because they looked nothing like the candles they'd known growing up. So we used candles. Yikes! It took hours to attach them and almost as long to light them (long fireplace matches essential). We'd stand around the tree and ooh and ah while holding buckets of water just in case. That many candles put out a lot of heat. Then after a few minutes we'd put them out (long-handled conical candle snuffer) and that was that until the next year. As soon as the little white lights came on the market (early 70s) we switched to them and the candle ritual was reduced to briefly lighting a single candle out of a sense of tradition. Those white lights are now ubiquitous but when I see them I still see candles in my mind.
Reminds me of my childhood.
I was lucky enough to have some wonderful older German folks as close friends of my grandparents. Their holiday lights were candles. The had special holders for the tree. Everything they did was based on theur lives in Germany. They especially loved sharing their heritage at Christmas.
The gave me a handmade decoration of dancing people that moved from the flame of a candle creating the energy to make the pieces move around.
change of pace
We put red lights on.our tree this year. Happy? Does look kinda cool from the street.
Gift bags vs. wrapping paper would make for a good poll...
...
Really
Is that what Christmas is about. Family getting together so you can debate the same old topics year after year?
gift bag?
wrap yer presents in brown paper bags and decorate em!
gift bags can be re-used
I kind of like that aspect. (I may or may not be a hippie freak, depending on the grading scale).
White Lights a New England Thing?
I grew up in the midwest, where multi-colored lights are standard; so when I celebrated my first Christmas in MA in 1988 I was struck by all of the "plain" white lights everywhere, and assumed it was a regional tradition.
I think it's more of a
I think it's more of a "modern" thing than regional. Growing up everyone had multi colored big bulbed lights. And those were the ones that when one went out they ALL went out.
(Years ago, an older sibling and friends thought it would be fun to remove one bulb from a whole neighborhood of lit houses. Needless to say everyones lights went out and you'd have to find the missing bulb to replace. Dad caught wind of it and each boy had to replace all lights in the neighborhood. To this day I remember the "conversation" had between my father and brother. Who ever invented the newer lights so when one goes out the rest stay on has my unending gratitude.)
It tends to be more about the
It tends to be more about the kind of community - swanky suburban (or even swanky neighborhoods) tend to go with the white lights while less swanky ones go with lights with many colors. Growing up, my father - who was half Irish and half Yankee - used to say that the white lights were used by cheap Yankees who didn't want to pay extra money on their electric bills.
not be too much of downer by putting a fine point on this.
christmas lights are built by slave laborers in China.
http://www.revbilly.com/
Depressing. (I say this as I
Depressing. (I say this as I post from my [resuscitated from the dead 3 times] MacBook and survey all of the other things I own that may have been made under horrible conditions as I tend to do from time to time).
Anyway, something that isn't depressing is donating (not slave made) wrapping paper to the St Francis House which is something I'm going to do this weekend while I'm back in Boston! I used to work on the same block at a certain Millennium property where the guests would complain about the proximity of the St Francis House so I am more than happy to oblige!
Good will unwrapped
Channel 7 aired a feel-good report this morning, with video folks bringing in wrapping paper, and St Francis spokesperson noting that this "unwrapped the good will in people".