December 15, 2003
As long as it's tasteful...
Can you see it from space? Elvis has just decorated the building...
Airtricity, a private electricity generating company, brought a windfarm on line a couple of weeks ago. And what do we need the extra electricty for ? Computers? Jacuzzis? Well, if the last couple of weeks is anything to go by, Airtricity will need to open a power station every week. Every bloody house is like a mini Euro Disney. A few years ago, it was a few coloured lights on a tree outside. Then people started putting stuff on the roof - maybe a "Happy Xmas" sign" in lights. And now ? I watched a neighbour having his house professionally 'wired-up' over the weekend. Far from that we were all reared. If Michael Jackson every seeks refuge in Ireland, at Christmas, he'll be delighted to see that there are plenty of houses as tackily decorated as his own.
Moppets carol-singing outside St. Nicholas' Church, Galway city, December 13 2003. Beats the hell out of Cliff Richard, the scourge of all Christmases.
It's amazing how quickly the transformation takes place - within a week, the drabness of late November is replaced by the gaudy delights of the Christmas preparations. Yet again, I struggled up into the attic to retrieve the box of decorations, and having spent a fruitless three quarters of an hour cautiously poking at all the boxes up there (judging by the scurrying noises we can hear at night, we have been colonised by a tribe of energetic Connemara leaping mice), Herself called out to tell me that the decorations were actually stored in one of the bedrooms. At least I had managed to crack my head off the rafters, so that was something. Without exageration, we spent an hour trying to untangle the fairy lights - it was like trying to solve a forty-sided Rubik cube, made of string. In the end, we just heaped them on the tree, like a clump of spagetti. Sod it - we're the only house in the row without flashing lights, so socially, we're doomed anyway.
Posted by Monasette at December 15, 2003 10:23 PM
Lovely entry, John. I'm just back in Ireland, and am baffled by the Christmas lights that I used only see in New Jersey. Like cocaine, giant Rudolphs are God's way of telling you you have too much money.
Posted by: Dervala at December 16, 2003 02:56 PMIt's mad, isn't it. I keep thinking that everytime the International Space Station flies over Ireland, the astronauts have to pull down the blinds to keep the glare out.
Feel free to bring as many Rudolphs as you like back to the States.
Posted by: John at December 16, 2003 07:40 PMI always thought of it as 'folk art' back home in the states; it seemed to me to be a fairly working class expression (although of course all the well to do houses were done up very fancy, living in a working class area I didnt get to see them much); a little bit of oomph for not much cash. We'd walk or drive around the neighborhood looking at the different displays, and even the tackiest had some sort of artfulness about it. Once i started looking at them with that folk art perspective, I really enjoyed them. I don't think it's such a bad thing that it's migrating over here, but I can understand the angst over it!
Posted by: Carrie at December 16, 2003 08:11 PMPS Also, decorating the home for the holidays is something world-wide (more or less); usually confined to the interior of the house it would be women's domain. Interestingly, decorating the exterior has been the men's domain. Funny how conditioned to our roles we are.
What I can't get my head around is where you plug the outdoor lights in over here, leastways I haven't figured out where to do so at my home. Then again, I also haven't figured out how to figure out which bulbs are causing the indoor lights to black out so perhaps it's just me. Tips appreciated ;-)
Posted by: Carrie at December 16, 2003 08:14 PMCarrie, the angst is something I ponder too. I used to love the decorations in my Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn. Folk art, just as you say. Dunno why exactly the same thing bothers me in Ireland. Partly, I resent it as a visible proof of the new buy-buy-buy mentality here. But also, country roads look like mouths with missing teeth--two houses decked out, three houses dark. This stuff only works aesthetically when everyone goes all out--and I confess I hope they never do.
Posted by: Dervala at December 19, 2003 06:45 PMCarrie,
I guess it is the sheer volume of the decorations on some bungalows that irks me - the smaller the house, the more like a Pink Floyd concert that it becomes. And I have little time for those who have their houses 'professionally overdecorated' for Xmas.
As for why men like doing the outdoor decorations ? Power-tools! Ladders! Dodgy wiring! Dammit - even writing this is giving me the urge to clamber onto the roof with a nailgun and a clutch of luminous Santas.