CHRISTMAS: Though the weather outside is delightful

Although the spring-like temperatures have made for a certain amount of cognitive dissonance, Christmas events are in full swing. On Friday we went to local balladeer Charlie Zahm's annual Christmas concert at Oxford Friends Meeting, and his loyal fans showed up in droves; the pews were packed.
On Saturday we went to the Hockessin Business Association's audience-participation version of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" at the Hockessin Library, which was great fun. While the classic Dr. Seuss cartoon played on a screen, there was also a live version being enacted in front of the audience. The evil green Grinch was portrayed by Charles Shattuck of the Wild Birds Unlimited store (casting totally against type; he is a very nice and public-spirited guy and runs a delightful store). This year's show included a seasick crocodile (actually an oversized pool raft) and a thirty-nine-and-a-half-foot pole. The kids in the audience got to sit on the floor up front for a better view.
When I mentioned to a friend that I had spent the afternoon at a Grinch sing-along, she got a nostalgic grin on her face and recalled using the Whos' "Welcome Christmas!" as a drinking song in college, imbibing at each repetition of the word "Who." (Now, she said ruefully, she and her husband can't even finish a bottle of wine between them.)
We spent Wednesday evening driving around looking at Christmas decorations. Some of the developments take their decorating seriously, with yards full of inflatable Santas, lighted deer, and giant snow globes. This year's lighting trend seems to be a sort of "wall of lights." At first I thought it was a net of lights that people attach to the side of their houses, but no: it turns out the lights are actually projected onto the wall.
To my mind, though, the most impressive holiday display is along Church Hill Road in Franklin Township, where an ambitious family has suspended a dozen or more giant lighted stars from the treetops. How on earth did they get them up there?! An industrial-sized cherry-picker or lift must have been involved, and I don't want to think about the extension cords.