On the 2nd day of Christmas

I've been sitting out on my mother's front porch this evening. The terraced front yard has only a few patches of snow remaining after today's sleety rainfall, and the whole velvet-dark evening smells of thaw and sweet lavender.

In the old days, Christmas used to last the better part of a fortnight. Christmas Day was merely the first of the twelve days of Christmas, which ended just before Epiphany on January 6. I know I've said something about this before, but I'm all in favor of resurrecting that particular kind of observance -- of making it a true Christmas season rather than just a single day.

But it also bears some consideration. Since most of us are expected to return to work and school before the twelve days of Christmas are over, the celebrations of the new Christmas season would have to take our busy schedules into account. So, keeping the necessities of a modern schedule in mind, what kinds of traditions would you create for a modern Christmas season?

I'll begin. (Yes, big surprise there.) One thing my family loves to do on or around Christmas is to go out in the car, looking for the most bizarre, insanely over-the-top cracktastic Christmas lights and displays we can find. Right now I've got a digital camera full of pure gold.

This yard was Blow-Up City.

It had an animated igloo full of penguins popping out the top, a gigantic Mrs. Santa holding court, and a Christmas camper-trailer with Santa leaning out the side door every now and again.

For some reason I find illuminated plastic Nativity scenes hilarious. But when they're placed in a wooden rocker in the side yard, that's a bonus.

This particular yard didn't photograph well, but trust me, it was Santastic.

I absolutely love this one for two reasons: the random lighted football player on the roof, and the tree in the window which, based on its color palette, appears to have been cut down in Satan's back yard.

My absolute favorite cracktastic Christmas display is no longer fully available, because the man who made it all possible has passed away. I saw it first while I was still in high school. The owner of the house had started out with a simple handmade plywood Nativity scene, illuminated by a yard spotlight... and from there it grew completely out of control. His front yard, located on a street corner, became filled with more and more plywood figures: children of the world coming to the Nativity scene, angels, Santa's workshop with dozens of elves, a phalanx of gingerbread men, Smurfs, even aliens. Along with the multitude of plywood figures came more and more yard spotlights, which grew so bright that not only the owners of the house, but also their long-suffering neighbors, had to place tinfoil over their windows so they could sleep at night.

One evening we drove by this alarming display only to see in the front yard a sign we simply couldn't resist: "OPEN HOUSE TODAY." The house was even more full of Christmas-crud inside than out, with knick-knacks and tchotchkes on every available horizontal surface. We went looking for the host and discovered, with a certain amount of embarrassment, that it was our school bus driver.

These days, although our bus driver has passed on, the house must still be in the keep of the same family, because the many plywood ornaments have been mostly retired in favor of a plethora of blow-up ornaments, but it's still wonderfully over the top... even if it no longer creates an aurora borealis that can be seen from blocks away. I hope that bus driver knew how much happiness he created, and how much delight his yard display still brings to our family.