If You Put It Up, Please Take It Down
Decorating the outside of our homes for holidays is a tradition that many of us enjoy.
Some go all out. Others tape a sign in the window and let it go at that.
My interest in outdoor decorating styles recently led me to notice a disturbing trend in the Spokane Valley. People are not taking their decorations down.
Driving around the Valley recently, I found Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day decorations. That’s five holidays worth of decorations - plus several “Go Cougs” signs still showing support for Washington State University’s Rose Bowl team - uncovered on one day.
I saw pumpkin-faced bags full of leaves, wooden snowmen, plastic-pipe candy canes and a huge Valentine heart made of plywood. I saw bedraggled sheafs of cornstalks, a melancholy pinecone wreath and a trio of red foil Cupids shooting arrows at me.
I also noticed distinct decorating fashions in different Valley neighborhoods.
Us flatlanders seem to decorate with whatever we could find at the day-after sale at Kmart or Shopko. Tooling around the Valley, I saw hundreds of Christmas lights, a shamrock and Valentine static stickers in windows.
As I went up in elevation, the decorations appeared to have been purchased at similar sales, but at such stores as Halpins or the Bon Marche. People living on the hillsides decorate with trendy windsocks, wreaths and banners. They’re no quicker to get them down than us flatlanders, however. During my drive, I found windsocks flying the colors of the Cougars and St. Patrick, and showing Valentine hearts and snowmen. I observed one lovely but outdated Christmas wreath and a small, dingy American flag.
It appears to me that folks living on the mountaintops probably paid full price for their decorations, at whatever store they darn well pleased. And, at the top, less is more. At Christmas, I saw a herd of grazing, lighted deer, but the entire herd disappeared immediately after the holiday.
While studying Valley outdoor decorating trends, I couldn’t help but pick out a couple of favorites
A Veradale home wins for being decorated for the most holidays at one time. This place sported Christmas lights stapled to the side of the house in the shape of a Christmas tree, two sheafs of wheat by the front door, two Valentine’s Day banners and a sign showing support for Sacred Heart’s nurses.
Not far away was a short block in which four houses were stylishly sporting two large Frostys, a Christmas windsock, Halloween pumpkin lights (hanging in a tree) and a large Valentine banner.
With Easter nearly here, I’m wondering if there’s anything we can do to solve this problem.
Perhaps we could adopt a Decorating Rule such as: “Within the two weeks immediately following any holiday, all outdoor decorations must be taken down.”
This would work, except that we Valley residents don’t much like to be told what to do, especially with our own property.
If the reason for not taking outdoor decorations down is that you are waiting for a loved one to come home from an extended military service or hospital stay, I apologize.
But, if it is just procrastination, please get them down before the next holiday rolls around. (After all, in good conscience, I had to take mine down before I could write this column.)
Although I admire those who put up decorations, I also admire those who take them down. And, while I agree that it is more fun to put up than take down, it’s a job that should be done before you need to put an Easter bonnet on that wooden snowman still standing in your front yard.