Up on the House Top

Mary Loftis

“Up on the House Top” is a Christmas song written by Benjamin Hanby in 1864, but the Gene Autry version of it is the one I hear in my head when Christmas rolls around. Although it wasn’t the song I was hearing as I was literally up on the house top putting up Christmas lights this weekend…it was “helpful” comments from my earthbound husband.

To put this scene in perspective, I have always been the decorator…not a good one, but the decorator still the same. When your house is a quarter mile from the road you don’t really worry about the little details. In reality we maybe wouldn’t have ANY decorations on the house if a generous neighbor hadn’t moved to Texas and didn’t want to take all their Christmas decorations with them. We inherited a full house of icicle lights, lighted characters and much more.

These are the same lights I’m using now, only I’ve needed to replace a few strings as the years have gone by. This became problematic as well because the new icicle lights don’t match the old lights. It’s like looking at long straight hair versus a fresh permanent look. Being skeptical, I wondered if the designers and retailers have that in mind so you have to buy multiple, multiple strings of lights instead of one or two. No doubt!  Anyway, thanks to Roy and Donna we have had lights on the house for many years.

Back to the “helpful comments” from my husband sitting on the step stool because he has a bad knee. He said he really thought it might be best if he wasn’t in the house watching the Chiefs and the Broncos football game while I was outside falling off the roof. He did ask if I wanted him to catch me on the fly or on the first bounce. He even created a special verse of the song for me:

“Up on the housetop, Mary paused

I just hope she has good claws,

I told her that she shouldn’t go

‘Cause those lights don’t really show!”

Don’t you think this has to put him in the running for “Husband of the Year”?

However, Steve did surprise me one year and welded a 5 foot high Christmas Star for the house out of re-bar. After adding lights to it we hung it on the front porch…where it stayed year round for many years because it was so challenging to get down and move without breaking bulbs. Can you say “Red Neck”? Okay, that was me…only now for the first time the star was taken down last summer by our embarrassed son, only he’s not around to help put it back up!

Now I’m not complaining about Robby, because with his help we had the best house decorations one year.  Being tall, thin and athletic he was easily able to get up on the roof of the second story of the house where he and Katie helped secured two reindeer and a sleigh over the lightning rods making our house Santa’s landing zone. Unfortunately that only happened once, but it really was neat!

Katie has helped with the decorations outside too but lately she has become my Christmas tree and in-house decorator and that is just fine with me!

Obviously you won’t want to put our house on your list to drive by to see the Christmas lights, but I feel we at least made an effort to share the joy of the season as we celebrate the birth of the Light of the World, Jesus.

Besides, the Grandkids think it’s cool too!

Mary Loftis,

Extension Assistant
UNL Extension – Burt County
111 North 13th Street, Suite 6
Tekamah, NE 68061
Phone: (402) 374-2929

Fax: (402) 374-2930

Internet: mloftis2@unl.edu