Christmas in the ‘Hub City’

Posted 12/14/18

Everyone is sick of politics right now, so when someone brings it up at the next Christmas party you go to, change the subject. How about bringing up that fact that out of the 1,132 municipalities in the Land O’ Lincoln, Rochelle is in the top 10 of something, and it’s something good.

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Christmas in the ‘Hub City’

Posted

Everyone is sick of politics right now, so when someone brings it up at the next Christmas party you go to, change the subject. How about bringing up that fact that out of the 1,132 municipalities in the Land O’ Lincoln, Rochelle is in the top 10 of something, and it’s something good.
That’s right, according to onlyinyourstate.com’s Laura Meli, the “Hub City” comes in at No. 7 of the Top 10 “Christmas Towns in Illinois” behind only St. Charles, Chicago, Galena, Monticello, Effingham and Elburn.
Rochelle is ahead of Canton, Naperville and Alton… and over a thousand other communities in our state. It’s particularly worth noting that Rochelle beats Naperville, a city that frequently tops lists of top 10 towns to live in the entire country.
The caption under Rochelle in the piece was short but sweet: “Christmas in Rochelle was kicked off by the Downtown Christmas walk, featuring food, contests, and carriage rides. Many homes are decorated and will give you that Christmas spirit.” I’m not sure what the criteria was for coming up with this list, but I don’t care. We’re No. 7, and we deserve it, so let’s celebrate it.
What I love about Rochelle during Christmastime is its dedication to tradition.

The red and green wreathes and ribbons wrapped around the street lamps. The Christmas tree decorated outside of city hall. The Christmas parade on the first Friday of December. The Michael Koolidge Show Annual Christmas Party Open House. Some downtowns have attempted to phase out traditional Christmas decorations and colors and replace them with more generic “winter colors” like blue and silver, and boring white snowflake decorations with nothing else.
Humbug to that, I say. It’s Christmastime. Let’s acknowledge it and celebrate it. (What’s to celebrate about snowflakes, anyway? They’re cold, lifeless and ephemeral. Or winter for that matter.) Why mess with a good thing? Should we start changing the colors of the Fourth of July as well? Make them yellow and pink maybe? Humbug to that too.
One of the wonderful things about Christmastime is the hearkening back to innocent times, to childhood. Nostalgia. It’s the whole reason that a movie like A Christmas Story has been such a huge success over the years: the entire movie is nostalgia, from one particular American’s perspective. Watching it reminds me of going to see it in the theater as a kid in 1982. And then watching it every year at home on TV as we’re wrapping gifts or decorating the tree. And when my family went to see the theater version of it on Broadway a couple of years ago, that in and of itself was a memory we’ll hearken back to years from now.
Look, I’m all about creating new rituals and traditions, which of course can be fun. That sneaky spy known as Elf on the Shelf is a newer tradition barely a decade and a half old (2004). Bring him on, I say. But we don’t need to destroy old traditions to create new ones. Let’s build on them, not tear them down. Who knows, maybe taking it up a notch in Rochelle will move us up that top 10, and take over St. Charles some day. Baby steps.
There’s a line in the Andy Williams gem “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” that goes “there’ll be tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago.” And isn’t that indeed one of the most wonderful things about this time of year? Remembering back to Christmases long long ago?
So keep things red and green. Keep hanging those lights. Keep buying those green wreathes with red ribbons from fundraisers. Keep hanging those mistletoes.
Bring on Christmas.
Now, if we could only get our neighbors to take down their Christmas lights before March…

Michael Koolidge hosts the regionally syndicated radio program The Michael Koolidge Show (www.koolidge.com) heard daily on radio stations statewide, including Rockford’s 1440 WROK from 9 to 11 a.m. weekdays. He can at radio@koolidge.com or 815-561-7130.