Aurora Illinois says, Down with Christmas! (Decorations, that is)

Maybe you've had a year like this. The Christmas decorations take a lot of effort to put up, and then, when New Year's is a distant memory, you just haven't found the time to take them down. And here it is, mid-June, and your house still sports a Santa and eight tiny reindeer.

Is that anything for your neighbors to complain about? Would you expect a letter from the Mayor, asking you to remove the out-dated holiday decor? If you live in Aurora, Illinois, it is, and you can.

   Cute at Christmas, tacky now.

The campaign to have Christmas decorations removed began with a letter from city alderwoman Juany Garza, according to James Kimberly, staff writer for the Chicago Tribune newspaper.

This is by no means the biggest issue facing the ward. Crime is a much more pressing problem, and street gangs continue to recruit young people... Still, while crime directly affects only a percentage of the population, everyone sees out-of-place Christmas decorations, Garza said.

Garza hopes the letters—written in English and Spanish for her predominantly Hispanic constituents—will convince residents that the decorations reflect poorly on the community.

[Aurora] Mayor Tom Weisner said the city will look into ways to regulate Christmas decorations through an ordinance if residents do not comply with Garza's request to clean up by Thursday.

While the effort is aimed at cleaning up residential neighborhoods, the city itself is one of the offenders.

Aurora's 12 aldermen have offices near City Hall... In the building's lobby, a curving staircase ascends to the second-floor offices. Along its banister runs a thick green strand of Christmas lights, the plug lying on the carpeted floor.

When that was pointed out to her the other day, Garza smiled.

"It's not my ward," she said with a shrug.

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