Bubble Lights...

When I was just a toddlin' lad,and beginning to recognize that there were some things that occurred in cycles,(yes,..I was precocious like that),I came to know that Santa Claus would be visiting us soon,because there were bubble lights on the tree.

No,..oddly enough,it wasn't the arrival of the tree itself,or standing aside dutifully while Pops wrestled it into perpendicular perfection.
It wasn't watching my mom and big sister carefully installing ornaments,and tinsel,and strings of popcorn.
..These things transpired in the light of day,you see.

In my developing sense of cause and effect,Santa wasn't officially coming until darkness fell,and the revealing glare of the table lamps in the living room were replaced with the soft,warm glow of those gently rising bubbles.
There was color,and motion,and a most satisfying quiet in my head.
..A trinity of talismans necessary to tempt Santa into overlooking the short list of misdeeds a young scalawag might accumulate during the course of a year.
The proof made manifest on Christmas morn,..the logic,inescapable..

You can still get bubble lights,although these days they are made of plastic,and not glass...at least the ones I've seen while out and about.
I prefer my memories..



'Valley Winter Song'