Column: Waiting on the snow for that Hallmark card moment

Disclaimer: I'm not a fan of the holidays. But man I love lights and color. It would be too deep to go into the psychological pathology of why Christmas etc... doesn't resonate with me. It comes down mostly to this...  I think every day is great!  And the emphasis on the holidays places a lot of strain of expectations on others that just isn't necessary.

So instead let's talk about the spirit of light and color that this season brings.
​And the feeling of joy.

As a teen, my buddies and I would go out and do probably ​unsafe things, but we'd spend miles on the road looking at light displays. On one such trip, during a snowstorm we found ourselves leaving Hope, Rhode Island, and arriving in New Hampshire where my friend, Chris, knew of a neighborhood Christmas light extravaganza.

It was one of those homes that boasted they had tens of thousands of lights, maybe hundreds of thousands. And they did. It was magical.

I also remember visiting my sister as a kid. She took me to a Boston holiday festival. It had live reindeer so it really stood out to me. During this time, one of the more embarrassing pictures of my 70s hairstyle was taken. (I'll let you imagine it, but it's buried somewhere in my online profile I'm sure. It was somewhere between a Moe Howard bowl cut and a mullet.)

​But the spectacle of the Christmas display was amazing. It may have been the moment I felt the warmth of community for the first time. ​I was 9ish at the time.

Jump ahead to a couple years back, I was long passed my grumbling about the holiday season, when I found myself driving down Liberty Street in Franklin with all the holiday lights and all of a sudden I got that same feeling I had years earlier.

Then, a couple years later I turned off 13th Street onto Liberty and saw the 55-foot tree lit up and decorated and I was just blown away. It immediately put my heart into my soul and it felt like this place, at this time, I was my home.

At that moment I knew this crossroad town of 8 and 322 (and 62) was really something. It could take this curmudgeony ole Grinch and transform him into someone who actually looks forward to this time of year.

Who would've guessed?

Now, I try to find ways of making a picture, and they are everywhere. But finding that frame to tell everyone about this town's great commitment to lights and emotions during the holidays takes a team of artists. And we are lucky to have us all - Eight One Four Photography, Elizabeth Schmude Photography and Leigh-Anne Williams Photography - so that someone is there when the scene is magical and the spirit of community and holiday create that Hallmark moment.  One of us, or all of us will get it this year because the folks in Franklin have worked diligently stop set it up to happen.