My first impression of Galesburg, last year, was that Halloween decoration had entirely replaced Christmas decoration, since I couldn't imagine how Christmas could in any way compare with how extensive the Halloween decoration was. By the time both were over, though, I had to admit that they were about equal, and Christmas had the advantage of having its deco left up for four or five months afterward.
But even equal is a significant change from when I was growing up, and it means that such things as skeletons are ubiquitous throughout Galesburg neighborhoods this time of year. And some of the light shows are amazing: orange and purple, and combinations of orange and purple lights, skeletons, disembodied statues, blood, demons, ghosts, etc. It's impressive. Some of them are very impressive.
So here's my analysis of why this has happened. Small towns are generally prone to decorating; this is true nationwide. So if you move to a small town from a larger city (where people don't have time, or don't trust their neighbors), or from a rural area (as we did), you will generally be impressed by how decorated a small town can get. It's a feature of living in a small town. But in recent years, enthusiasm for all church attendance and religion has waned, especially since the churches lined up behind Trump, an obviously sleazy and corrupt character. People have less enthusiasm for their general allegiance to Christianity although the allegiance might still be there; at the very least it is complicated by mixed emotions. For the same reason I am hesitant to fly a flag since my wife says it will be interpreted as allegiance to Trumpish, i.e. sleazy, corrupt & misogynist, values. I disagree on this: it's only pro-USA, but you can't tell someone how to interpret a symbol.
I personally don't see the joy in decorating and celebrating death, with skeletons, ghosts, or anything else. But I'm just not generally a decorating-type person anyway, and was never big on Christmas stuff either. I will say, though, that Halloween is less complicated in terms of how it's interpreted. Everyone knows what a skeleton is and what it means. Everyone's afraid of death. You don't have to be on one side or the other to get grossed out by a kid statue with a sword stuck in him and blood coming out. You can get behind this kind of decoration without the world making political judgment on you or blaming you for the oppression of GLBTQIA and women. You can lean toward the skeletons, or the blood, or the ghosts according to your preference, with no special baggage about the commercialization or the politicization of religion.
It's actually fun to see as you drive around and there are some places, like Losey, where you have to pay attention to the road instead of give these enormous, well-made displays the attention they deserve. Now's the time. Take a cruise around, especially at night. I'd like to document these so I could come back here and tell you where there's a good one, but, that may have to wait for another year.
