Spreading Cheer A Bit Early

            Now that Halloween is out of the way, are you itching for Christmas? When do you put up your outdoor Christmas lights? Now seems to be the time many people do, but that’s perhaps less out of a need to spread biblical cheer than to get the outside ladder climbing done before the weather turns very cold and snowy. I would venture to guess that people decorate their houses earlier the farther north you go. I did not observe a difference in the holiday hangings when I lived in the south, however I was not looking for one. I am agreeable with trying to beat Old Man Winter with the yard work, but that doesn’t mean I think it is a good idea to turn the lights on before Thanksgiving. Let’s not shortchange the holiday dedicated to stealing land from the Indians and then pretending to teach them how to grow their own foods. Thanksgiving has plenty of charm on its own, so let’s be patient and let the calendar pages fall off in their own time.