There’s a weird looking light bulb mixed in with my stash of LEDs and incandescent regulars. It’s covered in gel-like shapes reminiscent of soft ice cream cones the colour of blue cotton candy. Just looking at it tastes good. Every so often I screw the bulb into a light socket just to enjoy the oddball shadows it casts on the walls.
Coming across the box of bulbs got me thinking about light. December in Saskatchewan is a month of darkness, the shortest day and all that. It’s the time of year when I sit in front of a SAD lamp every morning to ward off the effects of the non-cotton-candy-type blues.
Paradoxically, it’s also the month of extra light. Visual confections in a variety of colours and creative configurations pop up around homes and businesses along our city’s streets. They sweeten the landscape to and from work, school, appointments, and those fun events requiring reindeer antler headbands and brightly embellished sweaters so ugly they’re fabulous.
If you’re one of the people who mastermind and erect these wonders of winter, I thank you! You make my December day – or night, as the case may be. I think back to the “twinkle tour” drives around Prince Albert with my elderly mom and one or two of her “neighbour ladies”. My job was to keep the car on the road while they gave colour commentary on the passing light shows and yard scenery. “Slow down for this one! Look! Up on that roof! Somebody sure put in a lot of work!”
You don’t have to tour the town to feel the glow. Why is it so comforting and peaceful to sit inside with only a scatteration of tiny white lights on an artificial tree for illumination? It must be primal, something in our animal brain saying “It’s okay. Rest. Enjoy. You’ll live to hunt four-footed food, beat on your chest, and howl another day.” And possibly eat turkey. Perhaps with those red berries cooked into a sauce. But I digress….
Back to the light thing. My grandma had it figured. She knew that if you surrounded a coloured bulb with a tin pie plate you got extra impact. And when you stuck a bunch of those pie plate concoctions on a sheet of plywood in the shape of a tree, switching them on at night – magical!
Unlike my creative and industrious grandma, I don’t do pie plates, or for that matter pies. I do however, own two pie plates. One of which is bent, thanks to the jumble of stuff it resides with in the stove drawer, where hope of successfully baked goods springs eternal. How are we back to the topic of food? It must be getting on to mealtime.
Anyway, I love all the holiday displays; keep ‘em coming! They inspire a person. In fact, I happen to have a great little addition to this light celebration in dark December, and I know just where to find it: in the hall closet, among the LEDs and incandescent regulars. Mmm, blue cotton candy ice cream cones, yum!
There is a P.S. to this column. Shortly after I finished writing it, a friend surprised me with a beautiful gift – a Himalayan salt lamp that cycles through a rainbow of delicious colours. Coincidence? Maybe. But now, dancing in my head among the sugarplums, are visions of a column about lottery winners….
Lorna Blakeney is an avid writer who enjoys photography, history, travel, and genealogy. She was born and raised in Prince Albert, earned a B.A. from the University of Saskatchewan, likes to walk, and loves coffee shops.
