No Show for Leglamp in 2019

[Leglamp]

After 9 years of doing a synchronized Christmas I made the hard decision to take the year off from setting up a Christmas display. There's no real "one" reason for sitting this year out. Just need to take a break and think for a year what I want to do next year.

The weather here in Missouri has not been very good for setting up a Christmas display for the last few years. It's either been too cold, too rainy or the snow came too early as it did last year and now this year. Summer months are impossible to get things done as the heat and humidity really wear me down. Each year I tell myself I'm gonna build this or add this to my display and as usual with days left to prepare, I again find myself way behind schedule and nothing new to add. I've been running the same setup for 6 years now. Occasionally I'll move a few items around in the yard, but it's all the same.

Now that my kids now are now growing up, their interests have changed and I no longer have the extra set of hands to help out. One son moved out, another is working / going to college and engaged, and the other is heavily involved in his after school theater project. I am proud of their accomplishments as a father and have always encouraged them to work hard and do what they want for their successes. But when you depended on them after all these years and they are no longer there, it's impossible for one person to do everything.

My job has been the biggest source of stress the last several years. This year many drastic and almost impossible changes came to the HVAC industry. My workload this year was almost double of previous years. I've already decided I may make some career changes starting next year.

Lastly, I haven't felt in the Christmas mood this year. Normally I am always thinking about Christmas thru the whole year. But for some reason with all the BS in the media, workload at work, and the weather I thinks it's finally caught up with me. I'm not depressed, just exhausted and want some time off to regroup and come back stronger next year.

I won't ever stop decorating for the holidays, but I really think it's time to scale things back and make some decisions what goes and what stay in next years display.

Adam

[TomL8345]

Adam,

Sorry to hear it, but taking a break is probably the right decision. Clear your head and decide what, if anything, you want to do for future shows. There is nothing wrong with scaling back either.

[ukewarrior]

Hey there Adam,

I understand your feeling completely! I just moved to a new home and none of my display will 'fit' except my mega tree.
I do know that I will only build props and lights that I can quickly and easily setup. THAT will be key.
So, its next year for me too!

[DrNeutron]

Wow! It's like you read my mind. I feel for you buddy, I am in same boat but decided to go ahead and put out "the same show as last several years".
I have all these great ideas but life just seems to constantly get in the way. This year I lost my "man cave", had to turn it into another bedroom. That was the clincher for me!
With no real place to work, it really kills any ambition i might have had to build new props.
On a positive note, I have 2 younger kids staying with us now (10 and 13), so it feels like we are starting over (my oldest is in university and youngest is starting university next year).
Who knows, maybe I'll start getting some help from the youngsters.......(hold my breath....LOL)

[Keith R]

Adam,
My workload has increased as well this year, working long hours this whole year. I knew this year was going to be a challenge, as always, with my bad knees and all. I finally made the decision to have a knee replacement and after conferring with my doctor, it turned into a double knee replacement. I am usually the one who is optimistic about everything and thought I'd be out a couple of weeks. My surgery was September 26 and I am just now walking a little and can possibly go back to work next week and looking forward to it. The recovery from surgery, including the rehab, is one of the hardest things I have ever gone through.
For that reason, I will be dark as well. My wife is insistent that we put up some props, but I have already taken off all of the time I can during recovery and just can't swing it. It is an odd not working on the setup and I know that many in our subdivision will be disappointed. Now I know the empty feeling of not being able to run my show, but I will hopefully be back next year!

[Leglamp]

Hiya Keith
I forgot to mention in my posting that my knees started acting up (again) back in October when I was putting Halloween items out in the yard. They first started bothering me a few years ago so I went to a knee doctor and he told me just take Aleeve and put ice on it. Such great wisdom and a lot of money to be told something I was already doing. After I got them back to normal they were fine for a couple years. Then like I mentioned they started flaring up again in October. I know the pain is from repeatedly climbing ladders, walking on my hands and knees, and carrying heavy objects out to the yard. But I figured it comes with the job. But taking a break this year may be the best thing for getting them back to normal again.

[MartinMueller2003]

Sorry to hear you are stressed. I was forced to be dark last year due to a work situation (and travel). This year I moved to a new house and planned to set up just my mega tree. My wife secretly bet I would not stop there and she is right. I also have three arches out but that is close to being all I can get out with my current time constraints. I do find that after a year off I have a more relaxed attitude towards putting things out which makes it much more pleasant.

[jchuchla]

I can totally identify with your feelings. Though for me, it hasn't been work but rather my growing family that's been keeping me too busy to work on props and such. It's been hard to bury myself in the workshop to get things done. The younger two kids aren't really old enough yet to help with anything for construction. My oldest is finally starting to almost get there. She's been helping in a bigger way with setup. And she has been getting really into stem type activities. She soldered her first blinky thingy at a cub scout camporee last month. And it blinks and she loves it. Between that, and engineering club at school where she's been doing robots, I think she has a bright future for blinky prop building. So things are looking up. But for now the new prop building is still lacking. I can barely keep up with maintenance. So the show is mostly the same as last year again.

I've wondered if taking a break would help things. But for me, I don't think so. I don't think things would be any different with two off summers between shows than just one. So I just keep rolling with status quo until I can start building new stuff again. I'll be keeping an eye out for your show next year to see if your break indeed helped you.

[dirknerkle]

Adam, I scaled way back this year -- about 95%. Only the "fa-la-la" refrain from Deck the Halls is animated with nine signs that say "fa-la-la...." to match the refrain. Oh, and my Charlie Brown tree with a single strand of lights that hang from it and drape onto the ground.

It's really, really nice to take a breather....yet still have some sort of blinky going on, however minimal.

Just don't let the Spirit of Christmas take a rest. Let it glow like always.

[Wayne J]

Ditto!