Cats and Glitter: Christmas Lights Galore

My boyfriend just doesn't understand why I love Christmas so much. To him, it's a "Hallmark" holiday - stressful, annoying, and mostly about consumerism. Of course, he enjoys seeing family, eating a yummy meal, and drinking to his heart's content. But he just doesn't view Christmas as glamorous, like I do. Maybe our differing views on Christmas are due to the fact that he's Catholic and I'm a Jew? Haha...yeah that's probably it. For me, it is exciting and flashy and fun, full of parties, sparkly decorations, and eggnog (which, ironically, I think is extremely tasty while his family won't touch the stuff). It is something amazing that I saw many other kids getting to do, but I wasn't able to experience. And maybe that's just it...I guess the whole idea of Christmas becomes less glamorous when you experience it year after year.

You see, when I was growing up, Christmas was kinda like Columbus Day; you get off from school but there's nothing to really celebrate, so you watch TV and order in Chinese. But now that I am dating a non-Jew, I can finally join in on all of the fun that I missed out on! - minus the whole going to church thing (and hopefully without being ex-communicated from my people!). I know that's totally NOT the point of Christmas...but really, what kid fantasizes about going to church (or synagogue for that matter)?

Above all else, my favorite part of Christmas has always been the lights. And although I never had the opportunity to hang up any lights of my own as a kid, my parents still took my sister and I out for nightime car rides in search of fantastic light displays throughout the neighborhood. Although they said it was just for us, I know they wanted to see them just as much as we did.

But without further ado, here are some of my favorite Christmas light displays of 2008 (and maybe 1 or 2 from previous years) as posted on this lil' thing we call the internet:

La Casa Di Babbo Natale - Melegnano, Milan, Italy
www.lacasadibabbonatale.com