Christmas in Towns

In Ireland, all the local towns and communities have their main street decorated for Christmas. This means that every 1-2 miles (for this is how quickly one community village becomes the next) you see the lights strung across the shops and café, greenery around the lamp posts, a Christmas tree at the main intersection, and festive decorations and lights streaming across the street reading “Nollaig shona duit” which is Happy Christmas in Irish.

However, it is not common for families to decorate their homes beyond perhaps a simple string of lights and a wreath on the door. None of the extravagant, coordinated neighborhood lighted home shows with moving figures and trees covered in lights that have become so popular in the States.

On the other hand, Christmas trees are seen everywhere. My office building has a tree in the lobby, then in the main entrance to our floor/institute, then in the lounge/dining area, etc. I was a bit surprised at first, but I do find it refreshing to be able to celebrate Christmas overtly again. The university’s school of mathematical sciences had a Christmas party, then the cryptographic institute had a Christmas party, then our building of collaborative research had a Christmas party—never once called “holiday parties.” Yes, while this is a professional work environment, with few actively religious folk, everyone is eager to say “Happy Christmas,” rather than the ambiguous “Happy Holidays” that has become the norm in the US, as the average person there must pretend that Christmas is not a part of the culture she has grown up in…