What is the deal with decorating cars for Christmas?

I still remember one of the first times I ever saw a car sporting a Christmas wreath. It was many years ago in Alexandria, Virginia (a suburb of Washington, DC), and I was either sitting at a stoplight, or I was waiting at a light to make a left turn. Suddenly, a huge older-model Cadillac came lumbering toward me in the oncoming lane. Now, it was already a "Look at me!" kind of car, but to add to the ostentatiousness, they'd wired a huge Christmas wreath, complete with red bow, to the front grill of the car.

I remember the mix of emotions as I saw it--first, slack-jawed wonder, because I'd never thought to do such a thing and, as far as I knew, didn't know anyone else who would either, and second, a fit of snarky giggles, at how ridiculous it looked.

Many years and 135 miles to the east later, I was out doing errands and suddenly became aware that there were quite a few wreath-festooned cars going by. I stopped at the grocery store and ended up parking nose-to-nose with a wreath. It made me realize that, all these years later, I still don't get why people feel the need to wire a Christmas wreath to the grill of their car.

As I walked through the parking lot to the store, I spied the next generation of Christmas-decorated cars, and laughed out loud--a car had large felt antlers sticking up from the driver's-side and passenger-side windows. Now I had to admit, that was cute. It didn't elicit the same head-shaking "Why on EARTH?" reaction as the grill-wired wreaths. It was as if someone was having a little fun with the silly habit of car decorating. Now that, I can understand.

Here's a clue--take your foot off the accelerator!

You know how sometimes you are driving behind someone who couldn't buy a clue if they won the lottery? Coming home from my volunteer gig the other day--it's a 30-minute drive on a 1-lane-each-way road--I had a brake-rider in front of me. In front of him/her was a truck that was going slower than the speed limit. So okay, pass it or take your foot off the accelerator and reduce your speed. But no. Brake rider would accelerate right up to the truck's bumper and then brake, brake, brake. Even though I was keeping a civil distance (by taking my foot off the accelerator when necessary, by the way), it was still a pain for this car, which was already going slower than the speed limit, to constantly brake, brake, brake, every minute or two.

You know how you just want to cheer when someone like that finally turns off your road and is no longer a pain in your tuckus? Yea, me too. Sometimes, I DO cheer. It's not lady-like driving behavior, but sometimes it just helps to blow off steam for a moment. :)