Let’s not revisit Christmas Eve 1983, OK?

I hope we’re not heading toward a repeat of Christmas Eve of 1983. Hate to remind you about that one, but it was 25 degrees below zero.

Crooners singing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” at this time of year must have attended some of our local holiday season kickoff events the past two weeks.

It was plenty cold a week ago when Jim Masters introduced “In St. Charles,” the city’s official song, during the lights ceremony at the First Street plaza.

Masters wrote that song nearly 30 years ago, and the city has embraced it as something future generations will hear and sing. As I noted when I first heard the song last summer, it is an excellent ballad. When Masters sings it, I still envision a crooner like Mel Torme belting it out.

Now it is just a matter of getting the song more exposure, such as playing on the Municipal Building sound system or making it a tradition for school music classes and bands.

Batavia was lucky with some warmer weather for its holiday lighting ceremony last Sunday, and maybe it was the added adrenaline of knowing the Bulldogs had won a state football title the day before.

In Geneva, it was just flat-out cold for the Christmas Walk last Friday. And if you never hear from me again, it will mean I froze to death Saturday morning during TriCity Family Services’ annual Snowflake Shuffle. Yes, I was registered to participate in the 5K run/walk.

Batavia banner city: Banners adorning our downtown districts have always been eye-catching and creative. But Batavia’s recent contest in which high school students submitted design ideas resulted in some real winners.

Hunter Nott’s banner depicting the spring, Brooke Belair’s for the summer and Cassie Sychta’s for the fall were chosen as winners. They are sure to catch your eye when driving, walking or biking through Batavia.

My guess is that someone is working feverishly on a “Batavia Bulldogs 2013 State Champions” football banner right now.

A banner like that should be up some place in town for a long time.

Great job, Diana: Stop in at the St. Charles Public Library between 2 and 4 p.m. Sunday if you want to congratulate director Diana Brown on her 39 years of service to the library.

The library is hosting Brown’s retirement open house to recognize the great job she has done as the library’s leader for more than three decades.

Wascally wabbit: Some police reports indicate people filing complaints that “someone” cut their outdoor Christmas lights.

I went through this nonsense a couple of years ago and again last week. I am certain that “someone” was a bunny rabbit nipping at the wires in the bushes.

A rabbit’s sharp front teeth make cuts that look as clean as any knife or razor blade might inflict.

Got pulled in: Time for a confession. I was among those standing in line at a store Thanksgiving night, waiting for the 8 p.m. opening. I felt like Michael Corleone exclaiming that every time I think I am going to stay out of this type of frenzy, they pull me back in.

There was a deal I couldn’t pass up, so I stood in line for more than an hour to participate. Two weeks ago, if asked, I would have said shopping on Thanksgiving was blasphemy.

Now? Well, it kept me awake by going shopping. Probably burned a fair number of calories, and it saved me some money in the process.

Plus, I saw whole families participating together, so this wasn’t something that ruined the family theme of the holiday.

Get used to it, people. It’s with us for the long haul now.

A holiday recycle: Aurora University professor Julie Hipp had the good idea to have her students create holiday yule trees that remind us of what kind of waste we produce during the holidays.

The students in her Wellness and Social Responsibility class made these holiday trees out of candy wrappers, empty snack bags, used plastic grocery bags and other items.

Students made one of the trees with 250 plastic bags. That’s the average number of bags used by a typical consumer over six months, the students will tell you.

Students, staff and visitors can admire this waste in all of its holiday glory at the university’s Phillips Library through December.

Cougars and Google: The Kane County Cougars are taking advantage of some new Google technology to expand their website’s virtual tour of the Fifth Third Bank Ballpark.

The Cougars say users can access and navigate the tour by doing a Google search for Kane County Cougars and then clicking on the “See Inside” photo on the right-hand side of the page.

Historic times: There is no doubt 1963 and 1964 were significant years in our history. Last month, we took our memory banks back to that fateful day in Dallas 50 years ago.

And we have another significant milestone coming up in a few months when we all remember what is was like when The Beatles burst onto American TV screens on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

Those moments, we remember forever. But what else was going on at that time? What wasn’t so important to history, but maybe to our overall lifestyles?

Do you remember any of this?

We were listening to “Wipeout” and “Puff the Magic Dragon.” (Well, some of us might have been doing that.)

Many of us were watching “Beverly Hillbillies” and “Bonanza,” which were topping the ratings.

And a lot of us of a certain age were going to the movie theaters with our parents to see “How the West Was Won,” “The Birds” or, maybe, “Cleopatra.”

dheun@sbcglobal.net