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Numerous American households have called a timeout regarding their traditional extensive Christmas holiday lighting displays this year or have reduced the number of hours those lights and displays are projecting the brightness and joy that this season represents.
Those decisions come as no surprise, considering the uptick in energy costs and the challenges that inflation otherwise has inflicted on their daily lives.
As past years have shown, however, this year's more subdued decorations scenarios, where they exist, are destined to give way to the brighter, more prolonged displays of the past, perhaps as early as December 2023.
Regardless, subdued lighting and smaller displays in general have not extinguished the true meaning of the event being celebrated this weekend -- the commemoration of Jesus Christ's birth on Earth in Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago.
Scriptures say Jesus came to Earth to save the souls of mankind. Considering all the hatred and unrest in the world at this time, there are people who doubt that objective ever can be attained. However, no human alive at this time is blessed with the capacity to understand the scope of the higher power of which Scriptures say Jesus is capable.
It is reasonable to say the impatience many people around the world display about the lack of progress in achieving a more peaceful world is a product of that limited understanding "built" into the minds of humans.
Back in 1973, America experienced a dark holiday season -- much darker than whatever the subdued decorations of 2022 might be.
On Nov. 25, 1973, then-President Richard M. Nixon, responding to a nationwide fuel shortage resulting from an Arab oil embargo, told Americans to reduce their energy use.
Reacting to the scarcities, Nixon asked Congress to enact a series of measures to cut back consumption; he also sought to use his presidential powers to directly implement some energy savings. Nixon said he was seeking "the full cooperation of all the American people in sacrificing a little so that no one must endure real hardship."
The president ordered a reduction in jet fuel, successfully asked Congress to impose lower speed limits for cars and trucks but failed in his call for mandatory "shorter" hours for gas stations.
He also was unsuccessful in his request to Congress to grant him authority to order curtailing of ornamental outdoor lighting for homes and nearly all commercial lighting outside of business hours.
Many people old enough to remember still recall Nixon's decision to cut back lighting on the national Christmas tree. Rather than the usual thousands of lights, that year's tree, which was brought to the nation's capital from the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania, was lighted with just a single large star at its top and eight floodlights at its base.
Meanwhile, as Nixon's energy-saving initiatives went into effect, their impact was visible by way of the lower traffic volumes on the nation's highways.
This year there are numerous potential distractions to the holiday season celebration, but people should not allow those distractions to succeed. And for those wanting to give a gift outside their traditional generosity, they should consider donating to relief efforts for war-torn Ukraine, where people's main objective this year is survival, not celebration.
Americans have an abundance of reasons to feel fortunate this holiday season despite the challenges and competing forces that exist here.