Jingle all the way

The daffodils have pushed their way through the warming earth. The dogwoods are blooming. Homeowners have taken down their penguin and snowflake banners and replaced them with tulip flags. Spring is here. So that’s why I choose today to pay tribute to those rarest of souls among us. Those who, through procrastination, obstinacy, mental confusion, class clownism, unbridled pollyanaism or sheer rebellion, still have Christmas decorations up.

A family of three white-lighted reindeer still graze on a lawn on Warminster Drive off of Featherstone Drive in Chesterfield County. A fully lighted Christmas tree, complete with candy canes, still glows like a beacon of lunacy on Forest Hill. And if you look closely (which requires very slow driving and possible threats of restraining orders) you can see a strand of lights still strung here, a red and green wreath on a door there.

One wonders what indignities these people must suffer from the neighbors -- the whispering, the grumbling, the terse greetings. Humbugs! Where is their Christmas spirit? Locked away in their red and green Tupperware storage boxes in the attic, no doubt, while our few fearless friends dare to carry it through to Easter and beyond!

Hail to you, the iconoclasts of seasonal dictates, you lone wolves of outdoor home décor! Thank you for extending the Yuletide season, shortening the wait til the next one and reminding us that there are only 272 shopping days left. God bless you and your crazy, rebel hearts.