Posted on 12/03/2009 3:36:27 PM PST by Steelfish
In Some Cities, Christmas Comes Without Tree Tight budgets are forcing cutbacks in holiday displays and celebrations
Fresno, Calif. - It's beginning to look a lot like ... any other day.
In some cities and towns across America, tight budgets have become a cruel Grinch, forcing drastic cutbacks in the municipal holiday displays and celebrations that people have enjoyed for generations.
The second Christmas since the financial meltdown is coming without the ribbons, holly, wreaths and bows. It's coming without lights, decorated lamp posts and parades. Trees with all the trimmings have either been shrunken down or eliminated entirely.
"It's just so sad. Why not put a little holiday spirit into us?" said Joan Wilson, a part-time receptionist, bemoaning the decision in Fresno to forgo the rite of December in which thousands of residents gather for the lighting of a six-story tree freshly cut from the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains.
The decision to call off the ceremony was just the latest disappointment for an impoverished region already battered by drought, recession and the housing crisis. Fresno's unemployment is nearly 16 percent, almost 6 percentage points higher than the national average.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
All the whos down in whoille.. (Christmas isn’t about a tree, but it’s nice).
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