Mother Tongue
By Kristen Taylor
More Lights! More Tinsel!
My poor son. He’s a maximalist kid with a minimalist mom. Then again, pretty much every kid is a maximalist when it comes to the holidays.
For Luke, the more songs, the more lights, the more tinsel, the more lawn ornaments, the more presents, the better. Though I sincerely believe that for him, it’s really not all about the presents. Luke gets excited and carried away by the magic and the novelty, the way Christmas takes an ordinary, bleary time of the calendar and transforms it into pure zaniness when the normal rules don’t apply. A tarted-up tree in the living room? Sure! Cookies everywhere, every day? Yup! The same songs over and over again on the radio and at home? Yes, and for once it’s not Lady Gaga!
A two-week break from school doesn’t hurt either.
Luke starts looking forward to Christmas around the Fourth of July, and for the next five months I hear the same pleading but sincere bit of advice: “Mom, we should really get more decorations for the house.”
He would like nothing more than for us to have THAT house: The one that’s featured on the local news; the one that attracts gawkers from all over the Southland; the one that causes a DWP transformer-crippling surge each day when the timer automatically trips on.
It’s not too hard for me to put him off, considering the expense and eco-unfriendly status of such a display (note to self: Investigate solar Christmas lights and compostable Nativity scenes). But that argument is really a bluff on my part, because my idea of a perfect outdoor holiday display is a wreath on the door and a single string of fat, colored bulbs along the eaves of the house. In other words, the bare minimum it takes to even qualify as having decorated the house.
This year, like every year, I will suggest alternative old-fashioned and homemade decorations like paper snowflakes, pine garlands, and pomades of oranges and cloves, to no avail. He’ll say, “Sure, we can do that too.” For my kid, if it’s not plastic, glowing, and animatronic, it’s useless.
You can tell that I admire his persistence, and I am going to up the wattage this year. Though we won’t come close to competing with the beautifully lit houses in our neighborhood, a little more seasonal eye candy won’t hurt.
One Response to “More Lights! More Tinsel!”
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26. November 2009 at 12:05
That’s Gus, completely demoralized that our house doesn’t look like Liz Taylor in a White Diamonds ad. I’m impressed with your willingness to bend ever-so-slightly to his desires.