SLEIGH BELLS

TODAY’S OBSERVATION

“Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?” Well, really not so much if you live in California. I was thinking about Christmas and the weather today. Why is Christmas always associated with snow? Here in Northern California, we are often blanketed in a chilly fog around Christmas. When I was growing up in NJ, it was a rare Christmas that had snow. We were too close to the ocean to get much snow. In North Carolina, it could be cold but no snow. In fact, a good portion of the world including the Holy Land doesn’t have snow on Christmas. We seem to be caught in a Northern European postcard when it comes to Christmas.

One December we were in Australia. It was almost summertime. And yet the store windows were sprayed with fake snow and trees were flocked. Representations of urchin carolers were singing with winter caps pulled down over their ears. Those were going to be one bunch of hot kids.

So though I am wrapping presents with snowman paper and sending out Currier and Ives Christmas cards this holiday season, I think that next year I must find decorations with a more California slant. Maybe fog gray paper with the words Merry Christmas barely discernable.

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