Have a DE-Lightful 2008!

This morning, as I was driving to work at 6:45 (because my stupid internal clock doesn't realize that when the boys sleepover at my aunt's house, that means I should get to sleep in), I noticed that there was a very upsetting trend occurring in Mt. Pleasant. There are many, many houses, and many, many neighborhoods, that still have their Christmas lights up. Tacky.

Before I get all sorts of grief over this, I'm all for having a festive wreath on your front door. I have a seasonal wreath for every month of the year. (I know what you're thinking: of course I do.) I am also not at all offended by those folks who decorate in a very subtle fashion for Christmas and then leave the lights up for the better portion of January. Key word being SUBTLE.

What gets me is the people who still have plastic nativities in their front yards. Christmas wreaths adorning every single window in their house (which frankly is a bit much in December, but that's not the point right now). And if the lights you have out are red and green, its time for them to go.

My sis-in-law is planning on leaving her lights out a bit longer. That's cool. They are small and white. No problem. And there's a house on my way to work that decorated their palmetto trees with lights...which would be really cool if they didn't give them purple trunks. I've lived in Charleston my whole life and I've never seen a purple palmetto tree. But when you pass a house with reindeer still in the yard and blinking mismatched Christmas lights on the porch, friends, that is just unacceptable.

I've heard that it's bad luck to leave your decorations up past December 31. You're not supposed to hit January 1 with the stuff still up. I don't know the origin - maybe someone with good taste just said it once and it stuck.

Anyway, after you get your decorations down, I hope you have a Happy New Year!!