With Christmas waning, the likewise festival of Kwanzaa still with hours left, and Boxing Day between, the lights that shine the way are still beaming.
Two different and differing nativity displays in North Hudson can be seen in the same block, one with a star set atop the siding on an overhanging second level of the house, and the other not really a nativity at all, which means you could call it a Nativity in Black. It rather is a group of three small structures with benches in the middle that are lit up, but not enough to show the full colors of this display, which when daylight shows can be seen to be stacks of small cut firewood.
And so I introduce a dichotomy.
The bottom line is that people often did not decorate as soon, although there were notable exceptions, and the displays of Halloween tended to spill over, and the traditional time of holiday decorating that is the long weekend after Thanksgiving (especially Black Friday) was sometimes pushed farther, but again, there were the standard bearers who did it beforehand.
<News break: I am Santa Claus. Or are you? Either way, unless copyright restrictions prevent the true Ironman from being revealed, check out my version of the seminal Sabbath song, redone for the third time, in the Notes From The Beat department>.
The house at the end of our Circle did it up well, taking the big inflatable Frankie and replacing it with a creature of the Xmas holiday, right away, with various smaller figures scattered around. Down the way closer to Lake Mallalieu, there is a small yard that’s filled with much more than a dozen of these such things, dwarfing the house behind
And so it goes, as the majority of the super-huge displays are harder to find, and some are decidedly low tech, such as the proverbial (I made it so) St. Nick on a Stick, (and this isn’t the cancelled state fair), not much more than a mask, or a simple wreath that sets atop a similar pike. A big exception is Sam’s Christmas Village in Somerset, a land of literally six million lights, that has a run through Jan. 3.
The multi-colored lights on a type of strand that usually would feature only one or two shades is a trend, most notably on trunks of tall trees this year.
And as trees go, that walk down to Starr’s Bar reveals that most of the older houses are not decked out at all, but the lighted evergreens inside houses are invariably positioned right in front of the living room window, at times even with the sash pulled aside not to see what’s the matter, but to give a better view.
The view at Green Mill was dominated early by a server wearing an ugly sweater, Wisconsin Badger style with bright, big red letters. A redux was an Irish band called The Pickles closer to the center of the state, but they as you might guess were sporting green not red sweaters, for a New Year’s Eve show topping off at midnight. This was a holiday season that would have a dearth of them, as it was tinged by a nasty virus. As in the song Pepper by, dare I say it in a holiday season, The Butthole Surfers.
Also, early in the holiday season, I heard a Xmas carol that similarly gave me pause. Did they really say that? It started by singing that Santa had been down on his luck, then added that hey, he don’t really give a (censored).
To bring it back to the more tame, a longtime fixture teaching music at Hudson High School, Chris Tank, offered a short Sunday virtual concert with “trumpet friends from the TCTE,” out of the metro. A special guest was Tim Blotz of Fox 9, as the emcee. We hear there may be a repeat performance.
And some of all these lights ranging around Hudson have been left on virtually 24 hours since early in December, to greet travelers. To paraphrase the strains of Shania Twain — I believe that’s who it was, or was it Gretchen, as I am not an expert at country music — “I leave my Christmas lights on all night long …”
Radio station KQRS is playing a whole host of Christmas covers and even original songs by rock bands. One was even by AC/DC of all groups. Or was it a single from their new CD? In the latter case, there was a song that hit the radio but broke little new ground and was rather muddled in places. It was saved by a guitar solo that was more melodic but still rocked.
That from this wise man? That is the surname, literally, of Wiseman, a pro football player that as announced as coming off the injured reserve list (non-virus) at about the time that the Three Kings were to be nearing Bethlehem.
Last in line, a holiday decoration piece that just caught my eye just the other day. My neighbor has a tree that is as tall as three basketball hoops stacked one after another, and the entire thing is decked out in lights that reach the full height and I don’t know exactly how he does it. They are like the ones that used to be on our much smaller tree at home. He has another one of that last very size closer to their front door. But what would really impress me is if the also as tall maple that forms a triangle in their yard would be strung up … And how about showing all this off more, as the display sometimes of late has started showing closer to the toll of midnight — as in New Year’s?