That Friday After Thanksgiving

No, I am not the tall green guy!

It is amusing how traditions are born and evolve.  The Friday after Thanksgiving has become understood as "Exterior Illumination Day" for my sons and their families.  The term is borrowed from the movie "Christmas Vacation," featuring the Griswold family, who attempt to navigate their expectations for Christmas with the realities of their family relationships.  The phrase, "You taught me everything I know about exterior illumination", inspired our tradition for this special day after Thanksgiving.

Some thirty years ago, my wife went shopping before Thanksgiving and purchased several boxes of the newest holiday trend, icicle lights, declaring that she would like to see them twinkling on our house for the Christmas season.  Formerly, our exterior holiday decorations consisted of a single wreath hung near the door, which was lit tastefully by a single spotlight.  It took me less than twenty minutes to create the entire holiday display.  I used to feel pretty smug about looking like we had holiday spirit without all that excessive effort others invested in the creation of their elaborate light displays.

Those multiple boxes of icicle lights were a message to me that things were about to change.  Metaphorically, the icicle lights were my Christmas star, although I didn't know it at the time.  I plodded forward by removing the lights from their boxes and attempting to untangle them, then stretching each kinked icicle strand.  My epiphany then was that I should not suffer alone.  Therefore, I mandated my two sons join me as "co-sufferers" in this onerous task on that Friday after Thanksgiving some thirty years ago.

We began our morning with a hot breakfast at the local diner to numb our suspicions that today would be a total waste of our time and hopefully would trend away as a one-and-done affair.  As we hung those icicle lights, we learned about the intricacies of installing cup hooks or gutter clips in subfreezing temps.  We discovered that these tasks require removal of gloves.  No pain, no gain!  We also learned that exterior illumination requires planning for the direction of installing strings of lights so they end near an electrical outlet.  Nothing sucks away the Hallmark moment more than realizing that you must reinstall the lights because they are strung away from the only outdoor outlet.  Together, we learned that Christmas lights carry restrictions regarding how many strings may fit together, and in the process of gaining this knowledge, we also learned it is never wise to craft an extension cord with two male connectors.  Oh, the things we learned during those first years.  In spite of these setbacks, we were encouraged by the way the lights sparkled at night and illuminated our achievements.

Today, we are experts at exterior illumination because it says so on the sweatshirts we wear on that Friday--- Griswold & Sons, Exterior Illumination Experts.  As the years passed, our tradition didn't fade even as our lives changed.  When college took each son away from home, the boys would call before returning home to see what Mom was cooking that Thanksgiving and to check whether we would be putting up the Christmas lights together again.  Their calls helped me understand that this task had transitioned from being just another chore to being something more significant.

I am pleased to report that our "family business" has grown as each of my sons has invited their daughters or sons to join us on this one special Friday after Thanksgiving.  Many more company shirts were ordered, and we now require the diner's largest table for our pre-decorating breakfast.  We still freeze our hands and butts, still laugh about the decorating mistakes we continue to make, and still freely quote lines from the "Christmas Vacation" movie while seeing ourselves embracing the approaching Christmas and one another.

As I reflect on this silly and simple tradition, I stand amazed that what was once a bothersome task evolved to become a celebrated holiday tradition.  It gives me deep pride to see that each of them has embraced the practice of decorating one another's homes, and they continue including me in the process.  I no longer climb the ladder, but I do my best to try not to get my feet entangled in the light cords or step on the bulbs.  The grandkids who joined us over the years remained with us through their high school and into their college years.  They even shunned the lure of Black Friday sales to kick off their holiday season by untangling balls of Christmas lights and hanging those lights in chilling weather as if we knew what we were doing. Like me, they have discovered that the joy and love we crave for the holidays can still be found in a simple and silly holiday tradition that takes place every year on that very special Friday following Thanksgiving.