Every year our town has a fun little tradition to help count the days until Christmas. They send out a sign up sheet sometime in October and who ever wants to can volunteer to decorate a window or part of their house for Christmas. Then they assign each person a day, and at 6:30 every evening, that window gets lit up and stays lit up until Christmas. We meant to sign up this year, but then things got really hectic for me, so we missed the deadline. But several other people in our building signed up to do a window together, and were assigned the date of December 2.
The kids were really excited to be there at the unveiling, there was going to be carol singing, warm wassail and cookies. Unfortunately, it was also right during swimming lessons. They were so disappointed, that I made an executive decision to skip lessons for that night. Hurray! They had been playing in the snow all afternoon, and didn't come in until it was completely dark outside. I had them all hop in the shower, as sledding is sweaty business, and then they automatically got dressed in their pajamas to eat dinner. Well, the window unveiling was outside, so this presented a small problem. We ended up putting their snow pants and jackets on over their pajamas and going downstairs just before the festivities started.
Our neighbor, Herr Gut, plays in a band, so he had his electric guitar and amplifier set up outside to provide accompaniment to the carol singing. Our little neighbor, Laura (age 9) also had her clarinet out and played along. It was very nice. We all cheered when the lights were turned on the display, it was so pretty! Although, it wasn't technically a window. Instead they had decorated the bushes, tree and grass area next to our building. It was very well done, though. And the fact that they were out there setting it all up during the snow blizzard the day before made it extra impressive. Why I haven't taken a picture of it is beyond me. Must get out and do that today.
We munched on cookies, drank our wassail and chatted with the neighbors. Some of the kids also borrowed our sleds and made use of the sledding track our kids had built that afternoon. I just love our little town and the opportunities they provide for people to come together and get to know one another better. And it strengthened my resolve to sign up next year to do a window for sure. I am already planning the design in my head…
Just browsing away before I go to work this am. I love this idea! It's a great way to participate and for people to get to know each other, plus anything with twinkling lights makes me soooo happy. Please do take a photo and post it for us who live in more boring places!