SENTINEL WATCH December 20, 2004 Issue

Seasonal makeover

By Kim Shippey

I Suppose It Had To Happen . In line with must-see television makeover programs, imaginative entrepreneurs have found ways to do a makeover on Christmas and make more than a few extra bucks.

Take color schemes, for example. Newspaper reports indicate that for whatever reasons—certainly innovative, perhaps aesthetic—people are rejecting red and green as the official color scheme. Pinks, purples, golds, whites, and blues are increasingly upstaging the traditional colors. In some homes, red and green Christmas stockings—family heirlooms—are bowing to wheat-colored ones. Even poinsettias are losing ground to the new flower of choice, the white tulip. And purple-colored giftwrap is now a favorite.

Then there are the trees. Have you noticed how many specially treated, flame-resistant, artificial trees there are around these days? Perhaps you haven't. It's hard to tell the real from the fake. The smarter ones (ranging up to $700 in price) even exude the scent of pine cones and come with a small bag of fake needles to spread on the floor for maximum effect—or deceit.

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