My 80 year old aunt told me that when she was growing up in Mississippi people sometimes decorated outdoor trees with colored bottles, like the Philip Milk of Magnesia bottles. I've since read about this in a few historical pieces.

Don't get me started on Kwanzaa. I learned Swahili (spoken only in East Africa) while I was in the Peace Corps and know the word kwanzaa has nothing to with "blackness." A few years ago I heard one of our idiot faculty wish a Kenyan grad student "Happy Kwanzaa." The student played along, humored the idiot, then stuck his head in my office and asked, "Kwanzaa ni nini? (What is Kwanzaa?)" I told him the next time some obsequious liberal mentioned it to him, he should say it was a time when whites presented Africans with expensive gifts.

You've got to love the folks at cultural centers.

My favorite Kwanza symbol is the ear of corn. It's a complete failure to realize that corn is American and, thus, was not available in Africa until carried there by the slave trade.

Not only was the creator of the "holiday" a Marxist - he was a stupid Marxist.

I completely agree about the nonsensical, liberal-motivated thing that has become "Kwanzaa" (however it's spelled) in the U.S. (it's not even a "holiday" anywhere else, much moreso not even anywhere in Africa, from what I've read -- correct me if I'm wrong about this, however).

Anyway, what I wanted to include here was a remark about the exterior-tree trimming thing, with bottles.

Yes, people actually did that and some still do. In fact, I would if I could at the present time in urban Southern CA.

The idea with those bottles on the tree branch ends is to create a sort of homemade burglar alarm: you get noise from the bottles rattling in the branches with both wind and intruders. A bear, a dog, a human, a cow or horse or mule munching on your daisies...and the bottles rattle and you can run outside with yer shotgun and yell and make some louder noise.

That's the idea. Plus, they look "purty" in the sun.

~;-D

Same idea as keeping the areas all around yer house in the Rockies (or anywhere else with similar concerns) free and clear and, hopefully, covered in crunchy gravel: anyone walking too close by will make a lot of noise, you have time to jump out of bed, grab the shotgun, yell and fend them off. Comes in handy with bears in the Rocky Mountains, I don't mind saying, and has in my own experience on a few occasions.

Bottles on tree branches in a wooded area is about the same principle.

Y'all get feisty about Kwanzaa.

I'll sit here and enjoy my Christmas tree prank all by myself.

You had me laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes!

Literally. What will they think of next? A festival to celebrate spring and the return of easy living by decorating eggs?

There's no end to the possibilities!

That earnest little response from the museum was a scream. I was going to string them along a little more, but it didn't seem fair. So, I passed up telling them that they could really be starting something.

They had so twisted themselves into corkscrews to avoid saying the word "Christmas," that it just looks like they have some mad tree fetish.

Polk is MY county and as usual I'm just mortified.

I have to say I'm not the least bit surprised by the polite and obtuse response you recieved. It reminds me of my local librarian. I'm always checking out the latest conservative book and she's just convinced that I'm a liberal researching the enemey. It would never occur to her that I'm not a Democrat. I'm sure she thinks that Republicans can't read.