Have you ever experienced a December where it didn’t feel like Christmas was everywhere you turned?  I vaguely remember, when I was very young, that Christmas arrived on the day after Thanksgiving.  It seemed that the Thanksgiving parade brought Santa on his sleigh along with all the decorations for stores.  In recent years, it seems that it’s Halloween witches and zombies that kick-off this massive festive season.

We knew that Christmas in the desert would be different than every other Christmas either of us has known.  It’s our first December away from Michigan.  The weather alone has us questioning the arrival of Christmas.  The other day, I opened the weather app on my phone and read “snow starting in 4 minutes.”  In a moment of confusion, I looked out the window for confirmation only to find blue skies and palm trees before realizing my phone was looking at our old hometown instead of our current location.

I saw all the signs of this uber-commercialized holiday while we were in Palm Desert area last month.  I didn’t spend a ton of time shopping, but I was out enough to see aisle after aisle of Christmas decorations at Home Depot.  On my last trip to Wal-Mart before we left, it felt like the toy department had exploded from a couple of aisles to a quarter of the store.  Restaurateurs hung lights.  The RV park where we stayed placed holiday wreaths on the entrance gates.  The neighborhood across from us lit all the trees lining their entrance.

And we prepared for our own Christmas countdown by decorating our RV with things I’d brought from our previous sticks and bricks home, some new battery-operated prelit garland hung from our slideout frames, and a poinsettia to stand in greeting on the steering wheel.

But we left busy Palm Desert, California to spend December in much quieter Quartzsite, Arizona.  Since our arrival here, Christmas seems like it could be months away yet.  There are a few places adorned by Christmas lights.  But I’d venture to guess that there are at least as many Christmas lights on private motorhomes and modular houses in the area as there are on the local businesses.  I’ve heard only a handful of Christmas carols played by performing bands, and only one store I was in played Christmas music through their stereo system (granted I haven’t been out shopping a lot). We opted to stay in on the night of the local Christmas parade because it was raining, but I saw some of the floats, and I can attest that it wasn’t going to have the same flash as the Rose Bowl parade.

Part of me loves that this is not how it is in Quartzsite.  And part of me misses seeing all the lights, hearing carols play in all the stores, and feeling the city’s energy ramp up as Christmas draws closer.  I suppose it allows Christmas to be a personal choice.  One which Brian and I choose to celebrate.

Since our major Christmas gift for each other came some months ago in the form of e-bikes (READ MORE), we plan to go for a bike ride together on Christmas day.  I will cook the turkey from our canceled Thanksgiving (READ MORE).  We will watch a Christmas movie or two, including National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and probably laugh a little harder this year when cousin Eddy proclaims, “Shitter’s full!”  We will think of our friends and families across the globe, many who will also be celebrating, and we will wish you all a Merry Christmas!!!    

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!