Christmas decorations

I'm pretty underwhelmed by my holiday shopping experiences. I was excited last weekend to hit the streets and do my shopping because I thought seeing festive decorations and sharing in the hustle and bustle would help me feel Christmas-y, especially in the absence of snow (insert your "That's not what Christmas is about" comment here). The new and improved Westside Pavilion had some decorations, but not many, and then 3rd Street Promenade was just lame. The only decoration it had was a Christmas Tree in the middle put up by Oxfam. We were pretty put out because we were planning to take some pictures. Oh well. Lorein said she remembered 3rd Street going all out, but not this year. Her theory is that the shopping centers feel there's no point in putting up a ton of decorations when supposedly nobody is going to buy anything. I think they should do the opposite though -- if you want people to buy stuff, then you have to get them in a happy, festive mood. Thus, decorations equals more money spent. Anyway, here's our picture in front of the lone Christmas decoration at 3rd Street.