- No christmas lights
Listen, everybody knows you need lights to really decorate for Christmas. At least 1000 tiny bulbs, lots of colors, strings of lights criss-crossing everywhere and tripping a breaker at least twice. Sadly, this year lights were banned. Because of that… unfortunate, highly cautious decision by the administration and fire safety experts, this year’s decorations have been frankly lackluster.
2. You either go overboard or you under-decorate
Last year’s seniors had decorating down to an art. The hallway was a winter wonderland. This year’s seniors were still totally extra, though they faced some obstacles (see #1). Go big or go home, right? Well, at this point in the semester, some of us just want to go home. Some people think that less truly is more. For example, Michael, who put up his Christmas decorations after Thanksgiving break. If you look closely, you can see them: a small bell on the doorknob and a cross-stitched sign saying “NOEL”. To balance it out, the whole bank of lockers beside his door is giftwrapped (probably not by Michael).
3. It starts way too early
“Christmas creep” is a real problem. That’s when stores start putting out Christmas stuff right after Halloween. And the same thing happens at Bethany. The seniors did most of their decorating after school right before Thanksgiving break. Personally, I can’t condone this much Christmas so early. Soon you’ll be saying the Christmas season should start in September! It’s kind of sad, though, that the decorative Christmas creep came as soon as it did because we knew we wouldn’t have time for decorating any nearer to Christmas. Who has time to decorate right before exams? Ugh.
4. Santa claus will get confused and come here if we decorate too much
Didn’t your parents tell you?
5. We can never outshine the house across the street
It’s hard to miss the Christmas rave happening outside the school at all times. I mean the house across the street, with lights programmed to flash in random patterns. It lights up the sky. And our puny little Christmas decorations will never outshine it (literally), even before Christmas lights were banned. The guy across the street decorates like he has something to prove, while we just decorate for fun. There’s no comparison. All must bow before the flashing lights and giant reindeer statue.
However, with all its downsides, decorating the school for Christmas helps us destress before finals and it cheers me up. It’s nice to see lockers wrapped like presents and fake snow in the corners of the hallway.