AJC > Sandy Springs > Blog > Archives > 2008 > December > 22 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USWhat’s happened to Christmas Tree Lane?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Christmas made its first appearance at our house about a week ago as we pulled the boxes down from the attic and started decking the halls at the Osterman homestead, as my brother refers to it.
The finishing touch every year is getting the yard decorations up and connected — we’re big on yard stuff, but in our neighborhood such doings are few and far between. I was reminded of this when I got an email from a girl I grew up with who saw our display when she was home for a visit. She reminded me of how it used to be.
The people who built most of the houses in our neighborhood had a landscaping plan, so to speak, where just about every yard had two trees out front. One was a magnolia; the other was some member of the evergreen family.
And in December virtually every family on the block would string their conifer with colored lights, creating what we called Christmas Tree Lane. It was a lot of run to see, especially as a kid, and I’m sure that Georgia Power really loved it.
Now the number of folks that do anything holiday related out front in our neighborhood have gotten few and far between. I’m sure for some it’s a practical decision that they are older and the idea of climbing a ladder to put up some lights isn’t the wisest idea. For others it would appear to be style points.
Several years back we asked one of the kids in our carpool if they were decorating their house for Christmas. She said they were but they probably wouldn’t have those “tacky” outdoor lights we had that her mother didn’t like. We laugh about that now, and we laughed about it then.
Another year, while the kids were still young we used some surplus outdoor lights and created a big X on the front lawn to serve as a landing pad for Santa. Then we tossed some seeds and bread crumbs out for the reindeer to nibble on while the jolly old elf was delivering presents.
Truth be told if we had the time, the lights and enough power outlets you’d be able to see our place from the space shuttle. I’m not sure why outdoor holiday decorations have tumbled out of vogue, but I can pledge that won’t ever be the case at our house.
But I have to ask — whatever happened to Christmas Tree Lane?
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Jim Osterman
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Comments
By Irritant
December 25, 2008 3:05 AM | Link to this
Awwww…. p**, whine, moan!
By Terri
December 27, 2008 3:55 AM | Link to this
I remember Christmass Tree Lane. It was beautiful, and a must see at Christmas time.
By gttim
December 29, 2008 4:14 PM | Link to this
The number of lights one sees is dwindling. I suspect it will continue. The light tradition fades. My grandmother’s neighborhood could have been seen from the Apollo rockets, but hardly anybody there puts anything out now.
Of course, if you go to that new Target in Sandy Springs, there will be a ton of lights for sale you can use next year!