Lights, Cameras…
Lest their be any confusion regarding my posting on the differences experienced on Christmas Eve in Kansas City and in Dublin, I should stress that the day is quite special in KC also, just different.
In many ways it’s more special, with so many people actually celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. This is indicative of the northern European heritage of the Midwest.
Today especially was even quieter than usual. Because it was a Sunday. Good Friday in Ireland is livelier than what I witnessed today. Which is not necessarily a bad thing at all.
For me it’s meant that every Christmas Eve since arriving in KC in ‘99, for various reasons I have found myself alone meandering through residential streets after dark, whether by car or by bicycle. I am always completely alone. There is no movement on the streets or in and out of houses.
Ireland and Britain might recently have tried copying America with its Christmas lights, but they have a long way to go to catch up with a nation that has been doing it since the electric lightbulb was invented. Nothing exceeds like excess.
Winding through the quiet streets like Scrooge on tour, I find the lights both heartening and sad. This is similar to the emotions I feel in Ireland on Christmas Eve as I pass houses with a single candle in the window, everybody burning the bottom of their venetian blinds on behalf of Belinda Carlisle.
So I’ve been giggling away for most of the evening as myself and the dog share jokes and stories. And a bottle of Drambuie.
See Also:
• Happy or Merry Christmas
• Part 1 of a 3-part drunken Irish Christmas story
• Christmas Eve in Dublin and Kansas City
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