Why I Oughta...

The lighting of the trees around City Hall and the County Building happen every Fall and I've been documenting it on my walks to work for the past few years.  Here's the lights going up this year in the photo above.  I took this photo more than a week ago, so despite me posting it on the 26th, they technically started the lighting the trees in mid-October.  Here's the post from 2017 showing the lights going up  on October 27th. In 2016, the lights went up in early October . And in 2015, the lights went up in September . This raises the age-old question about Christmas Creep when it comes to holiday decorations:  Is this genuine Christmas Creep?  Or is it just good planning?  

The window you see above is on the Randolph Street side.  The one below is on the State Street side.  Both of them are currently dark with the message:  Pardon our appearance.  Something magical is in store.  And...being good Chicagoans, we all know what that is:  the big reveal of the Marshall Field's Christmas windows.  The one below shows the 'Santa' theme that they've used in year's past and...unfortunately, doesn't include Uncle Mistletoe.  I posted photos of the windows being prepped last year - just in early November 2016.  Here's the photos .  And here's a photo from the morning of November 9th, 2015 - the very day they opened for public viewing .  Here's photos of the 'coming soon' windows in 2014 .  Let's all hope they don't make the mistake they made back in 2015 when we got NYC's 'sloppy seconds' where they re-used Macy's NYC window display .  Shame .  What else is a shame?  That they don't...

It's - beginning - to - look - a - lot - like - Christmas....  At least if you walk down Randolph Street outside of the Daley Center.  I took this photo on a recent walk and you can see the guys in the bucket trucks stringing little white twinkle lights on the Ginko trees that are perched in the raised beds right along Randolph.  I covered this same thing the past few years. In 2016, the lights went up in early October . And in 2015, the lights went up in September . So, the trend continues to creep back towards Halloween.    And, I for one, don't consider this Christmas creep.  They don't keep them on once the installation is done.  Let's just count this as flat out good weather planning, right?

Walk through City Hall these days and you'll see that Northside guy Rahm has wrapped himself in the "W" flag and there's dozens of them hung up in the lobby.  There's no way that Da Mare would would have allowed this, right?  I don't like this.  Not one bit.