The Norman Transcript

Opinion

Discussion

December 12, 2012

I’m dreaming of a bright Christmas

The Norman Transcript

PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss. — It was a painting on black velvet. Half a dozen or more boats, one of them a huge Biloxi schooner, all bedecked with colored lights, moving slowly through the darkness.

So far away, they might have been toys, no division between ebony night and sea, the Christmas parade of boats from Pass Christian’s picturesque harbor moved noiselessly as lightning bugs. If you could have matched it with music, a Gershwin tune would have played. I felt privileged to see such a sight

again after many, many years.

I am a fan of Christmas parades, any size or stripe, on land or on sea. The week before, in fact, I had been watching in Iuka, Miss. — the other end of this most underrated of states — as decorated tractors anchored that town’s more agrarian approach to the holidays.

Tractors are lovely, too, and come pre- decorated in hues of bright red or green.

The only thing lovelier rolling by than a tractor has to be a boat. They are the kings and queens in the parade deck of cards.

The best thing about those Christmas boats were the colors they were wearing.

Gaudy, glittering, go-for-broke colors. I’m not sure when the style police decreed that only white lights are tasteful, or, for that matter, that Christmas should be “tasteful.” Taste, as my cousin

prone to the profound once said, is a matter of taste.

Asnooty Memphis, Tenn., suburb once tried to outlaw anything but white lights.

Someone sensible reminded the white lights-only proponents of the U.S. Constitution. Last year a Doylestown, Pa., neighborhood association tried the same in an effort to make its area “classier.”

Christmas decorations are for the children foremost, is my theory, and they like color, the more color the merrier. I don’t have a child, but I can vaguely remember being one. Bring on the red and green, the Elvis blue, the halo gold. Bring on the bubble lights and the spinning color wheel reflected on tin foil boughs.

Christmas can be a bag of mixed metaphors, with Santa kneeling at a creche, or elves and wise men marching side by side. It can be whatever tickles your fancy, or makes you smile. Rudolph

was a red-nosed reindeer, not a brown-nosed conformist.

I know from experience that this beautiful coastal town, or most of it, used to subscribe to its neighbor New Orleans’ flat-out approach to holiday decorating.

Nothing meek or mild or coordinated.

After 20 years away, I worried that the taste mavens might have moved in to monitor the free spirits and temper its

multicolor tendencies. Let’s put it to a vote — a vote of the children.

Folks are always trying to keep things in Christmas; I say let’s keep the junior leagues and garden clubs and neighbor-

hood associations out.

The world has more pressing problems, yes. And I’m free to decorate my home like a Delta honkytonk expecting the return of Robert Johnson. White is a choice, and that’s fine if it’s what you really want.

But don’t let anyone tell you that white makes you a Carnegie and red makes you a redneck. Go with your gut, not your lily-liver.

To find out more about Rheta Grimsley Johnson and her books, visit www.rhetagrimsleyjohnsonbooks.com. © 2012 Rheta Grimsley Johnson, Distributed by King Features Syndicate

For local news and more, subscribe to The Norman Transcript Smart Edition, or our print edition.

Text Only | Photo Reprints
Opinion
  • Tax plan gets projects going

    A deal to divert state use taxes to fund completion of the American Indian Cultural Center Museum in Oklahoma City and build the Museum of Popular Culture in Tulsa looks like a good way to get some momentum on both projects....

    May 18, 2013

  • Tax cuts help wealthy and harm schools

    Perhaps it’s old news by now, but I hope the controversy will live on....

    May 18, 2013

  • American Legion post updating

    Editor, The Transcript: Attention all American Legion Post 88 members. We are updating our membership information. Please send us a card, letter, or e-mail as to your correct address, contact phone, and e-mail address, if any. This will ...

    May 18, 2013

  • Keeping the state’s promise

    A college education or professional certification will not guarantee a successful career, but the odds are much better when such accomplishment is achieved. Access to post-high school education is often problematic. Oklahoma’s Promise, ...

    May 18, 2013

  • National Bike to Work Day

    Norman visitors and new residents often comment on how flat it is around here. Indeed, Norman is at the crossroads of the flat western half of the state and the more hilly eastern half....

    May 17, 2013

  • Seizure of AP phone records insult to independent press

    Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure that the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a ...

    May 17, 2013

  • Mothers today aren’t like early mothers

    Early mothers were known for their ability and willingness to sew for family as well as friends and neighbors. When clothes needed mending or someone needed a dress or a jacket, many mothers could always come through. “You have to stand ...

    May 16, 2013

  • The math doesn’t add up

    The $7.1 billion budget bill passed through both chambers of the state Legislature this week will have its critics. No one ever gets all they want. State Sen. John Sparks, D-Norman, raised the issue of $13 million in additional allocation ...

    May 16, 2013

  • Medicaid standoff a disservice

    Does anyone else see the massive irony in Gov. Mary Fallin’s latest attack on the Obama administration? She accused the president of not keeping his word and of “actively” seeking to toss 30,000 Oklahomans off a state-subsidized health ...

    May 16, 2013

  • County’s rapid growth requires more judges

    Cleveland County judges have been asking for some bench relief for about four decades. A former district judge, writing in a Transcript guest column this month, said he began asking for at least one, and maybe two more, district judges as ...

    May 16, 2013