christmas all over again

The last ten years of Christmas decorations are proudly displayed in my parents’ middle-class, middle-America, very white subdivision. Nearly every year there is a new fad, and a few people know about it, but most people catch up the next year and suddenly the entire neighborhood is filled with last year’s new thing.

There are the white dangling icicle lights of ten years ago still lingering at a few houses.

Those white-light deer that were all the rage seven or eight years ago and stood proudly (annoyingly) in everyone’s yards have finally begun to disappear.

I think I’ve seen the last of the spiraling single-colored cones that were supposed to look like pine trees.

There are only two of the inflatable snowmen/santas left.

Last year there was only one house with the bigger, precisely spaced, expensive lights on the eaves. This year there are three. I sense the next trend.