Christmas in Colorado

Me being in the USA was a 360° experience, but one segment of it that I particularly enjoyed was Christmas, not just Christmas Day but both the months of November and December and why not, even January.

I started seeing my host town in a different way. It was magical. More or less every house was lightened up and decorated with ornaments. It felt like if there was magic in the air. I love Christmas but as I was growing up the magical feeling started to fade, until I celebrated it in America. Just an example, pretty much every single room of my house had a Christmas tree, and each one was even different from one another. The one in the living room was full of ornaments my American family bought in different places around the world (there were things from Italy, Mexico, and Brazil), and there were also things that my American brother did when he was little, or gifts people gave them. The tree in my room had a "hat" on top of it instead of a star and it had different light colors compared to the one in the living room. Probably the only place where you could not find a Christmas tree was the bathroom (but even there you could find a Christmas something, for example, my shower curtain was full of snowmen).

In a picture frame

The garden also had lights on, which brighten up my heart, but when the snow colored the driveway of white everything started to feel less real and more magical than ever. I felt like if I were in a movie. Have you ever seen those movies where people get stuck in a big house on Christmas day because outside there is a snow storm and everyone is inside enjoying their meal, laughing and creating a cozy atmosphere? Well, this is pretty much what happened. I was not used to it because it never snows on Christmas day in Milan, and no one has a big house in the city either.

One concert after another

The Christmas season started early in November though, when my family started to play Christmas music on the radio, to light up candles on the window's shelf and to go to Christmas concerts. The first one was the Mannheim Steamroller concert in Loveland, then we had one in our church. Last week of November I helped at the Festivals of Trees in Down Town Greeley, where I made pins for kids, and I also went to Estes Park to see my first Christmas Parade. It was so nice to see everyone sitting next to each other in the cold with a smile on their face and waving to the trucks as they were driving by. Early in December instead, we attended the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra and then we went to the theater in Denver to see "A Christmas Carol" and "The Grinch". Both of them have been really fun and every single actor was very good. Right before Christmas my American family and I went to Denver, which we enjoyed very much with all the ornaments and the lights. On Christmas Eve we went to a party at the biggest house in town, where apparently there was also one of the producers of Friends, the 90's TV series I love more than anything, lol. After the party, we went home to open the gifts that have been underneath the tree for too long.

Can it be Christmas all year long?

One of these nights, we even went around town with our car to check out all the houses and their decorations. There was a competition for which the best house would win a prize. Everyone was amazing, there was one with Disney characters and another one where lights were coordinated with the music, every house was literally a show of its own. None of us was ready to let Christmas go, so we left out candles up and on until February first.

- Cristian

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