Thanks so much for decking the houses (Dec. 16)
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By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
We have started running photos of holiday houses in The Madera Tribune again, but don’t look for my house to be among them. I haven’t plugged in the bugling angel yet. Maybe I’ll get to it before Christmas Eve.
I happened to buy the bugling angel a few years ago when it was on sale, and it has proven to be money well spent. It lights up the front of our house. It gives the impression that the angel is either blowing a bugle or smoking a large pipe. Either way, the image is very Christmasy. It certainly isn’t something you’d plug in for the 4th of July.
When our kids were still around the house, I used to spend days getting the yard all dolled up for Christmas. I would wrap strings of hundreds of lights around hedges and tree trunks. I would fasten lights to hooks I had installed under rain gutters. I would put lights along stair rails and around windows. When I threw the switches, the stockholders of the power companies would break out the champagne to toast another year of good dividends.
Things are much tamer now at the Doud house. The bugle-ing angel is pretty much it.
I have a lot of admiration for the Maderans who deck their houses with lights, créches, air-blown Santas, dancing elves and other outdoor Christmas decor. I know it is a lot of work. Untangling the lights, for example, reduces some men — and women, too — to saying things so bad they have to high-tail it to confession. It brings the urge to drink on some decorators, and they give in to that urge. They take vows never to do this again.
But then, when everything is in place, and the switch is thrown, they get that good old warm Christmas feeling. And so do the rest of us. Thanks so much, all of you, for giving the city such a wonderful holiday glow.
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Music Video: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” by Sufjan Stevens
