a green charlie brown christmas

"I love being here for Christmas. But it does not seem like Christmas without snow."

I had "coffee" the other day with a friend from Ontario. (I had mineral water; she had her usual morning margarita.) She was in one of those bittersweet moods that we all encounter. Thoroughly happy to be where she was, just a bit wistful for Christmases past -- as Dickens would have it.

Snow at Christmas is something I do not miss. Not because I am happy to be away from snow. I simply have never lived any place where snow would be expected at Christmas. So, I could not share in her specific woe.

You already know that my family is not very big on holidays. Certainly not in celebrating them in any traditional fashion. Having said that, I will confess that I enjoy Christmas in Mexico.

There are more important holidays on the Mexican calendar than Christmas. Easter, for instance. But Mexico is culturally, if not legally, a Catholic country, and celebration of the incarnation of the messiah is an important day on the liturgical calendar.

Each Christmas I have wandered through my neighborhood looking for decorations on houses that encapsulate that particular family's celebration of this season. This year, I did not have to wander far.

Last year, a neighbor family decked out their deck in familiar yuletide symbols. An LED-lit set of bells, topped by holly, and tied together with a bow. A string of Christmas lights outlining the deck. And a real live Christmas tree.

Or, at least, it was a recently-cut tree. When all of the needles had fallen off of the tree, the family left it on the deck. I just thought it was awaiting the inevitable exile to the curb where it would be whisked away to the local dump.

I was wrong. It stood naked in the summer storms. And I now know why.

I have not priced cut Christmas trees here. I do know, though, that they cost a fistful of pesos. It is a lot of money to spend on an accessory for a few days in December.

But life is more than money. I like to think that my neighbor is simply going green with a brown tree. After all, the tree is essentially just a backdrop for ornaments and decorations. And a bare tree suits that purpose perfectly. Maybe the tree is a cousin to the Charlie Brown Christmas tree of our youths.

The display also includes one of those music players found in greeting cards that continually plays a medley of eight Christmas carols -- the type of thing Arthur Fiedler conducted with the Boston Pops. Abraham Lincoln may have had these medleys in mind when he said: "People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like."

This particular medley cyclically runs through "We Wish you a Merry Christmas," "Adestes Fideles," "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," "Jingle Bells," "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," "Silent Night," "Joy to the World," and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." A nice combination of the sacred and the profane.

For the last week, the lights of the bell wreath, the multi-colored deck lights, the tree's decorations, and the music box's 24/7 carol renditions each night combine to create what could only be called a Christmas mood. No matter where you are from.

All we need to add now is our Christmas spirit to the Christmas mood. And we will have ourselves a blessed Christmas.

Even without the snow.