"Light the torch, Jeannette, Isabella"

 I'm a sucker for Christmas Lights. I have always been. Contrary to public belief, I am not old enough to remember candles burning in Christmas Trees (and starting fires.) My earliest Christmas memories are of watching my dad string electric lights, on the spindly trees that we bought every year from the same building where we purchased fresh watermelons, in the summer. The bulbs were multicolored and stuck up above their screw in sockets, about one inch. We used the same ones, every year, until I left home. They were always put away, along with each individual string of tinsel (actually tin, I think), to be reused the next year.

Light displays on houses, were a novelty, back in the 1950's and 60's. One of the newer (post war) subdivisions, had a few decorated houses. And, in our neighborhood, one particular family had an illuminated Nativity Scene and house lights! I believe their name was Lensky. 

Broadway, our main street, had strings of lights, tinsel garlands and lighted bells bells, strung across about five linear blocks of our downtown. Everyone had to go see those lights. It was the biggest thing that happened during the Holiday Season.

Kansas City is, in fact, famous for it's Plaza Lights. The Country Club Plaza sports 15 blocks of mainly white lights, outlining several hundred buildings. It's stunning. They have had this displays, like this,  since 1925. Today, people lament the elimination of the 9 Giant Holiday Crowns, that were hung over major intersections in Downtown KC, for years. They were kind of a nod to Hallmark Cards and their headquarters, in the downtown area. I think one remains, hanging in a bank lobby, somewhere.

Lights are a tradition of the Holiday Season. I prefer them, over the currently popular inflatable Santas, Rudolphs and snowmen. I really don't like how the deflated decorations create flat plastic puddles, in folks' yards, during the daylight hours.

'Tis the season. Get out there and enjoy the light displays, in neighborhoods, around your home. Let the Light of Christ shine. 

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 Pittsburg, Kansas, USA...........