In mid November I wrote a post about putting up Christmas lights despite the time, effort, etc. Seeing Christmas lights brings a smile and a little joy to most people. Now I’m suggesting you leave up the Christmas lights, at least for a while.
No, not all year. Yes, I know some take them down on Epiphany on January 6th. Personally, I’ve always let my Christmas lights up through the month of January (as one poll found 20% of the people do). After the effort to get them up, why not enjoy them for a while. . . And there are the benefits I gave in the earlier post.
Some people in Europe, Iceland, the Pacific Northwest and other places leave some lights up even longer. I’m referring to “Winter Lights”. Usually that’s just the white lights, and not Santa on his sleigh or all the red and green ones.
Better than taking them down the day after Christmas or Jan 6th, would be to leave up either the white lights or all the Christmas lights, at least through January. Below are examples of people doing just that…
Some observe an old tradition, that of Candlemas, where people kept the lights up through January “to bring cheer to the winter months”. Some faiths extend the season till Feb 2nd, which coincides with the 40th day after Christmas, when Jesus was presented to the temple.
And last year some communities kept them up through January to “bring light to the world”. Brian Mittge, wrote a letter urging his community to leave them up through January again because “we need all the cheer we can get”. I agree. Some have kept them up to support health care workers. After the past couple of years, the world certainly needs more light, joy, peace and happiness.
People in Denver keep them up through January to make the city look festive. It started with keeping them up through the National Western Stock Show.
So there are some choices. . . You could let Christmas lights up through January, or just the while lights through January. Or maybe leave the white lights even longer (the “Winter Lights” idea). But let’s make someone smile, brighten up the dreary winter, and leave at least some of the lights up through January.
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