The Halloween doppelgangers have finally left. Those bundled-up but spooky bogus people frozen in front of the drug store, the old library and Up-Island Cronig’s are back inside their crypts. Now the Christmas season can begin in earnest.

Christmas never creeps up on us gradually. Black Friday, which began as a one-day frantic stampede for bargain prices, is now in effect all of November, according to some nation-wide retailers.

And suddenly, multi-colored light shows are brightening the way along State Road and even on the residential streets, notably on Oak Lane, thanks to the generosity of Norm and Kathy Lobb.

A couple of semi-transparent Santa Claus figures have been sitting on Alley’s porch for more than a week. Yellow lights spiral around the support posts of the front veranda. If we ever needed to lighten up the sky, this is the season.

Over the years Tim and I always took part in a big Thanksgiving dinner, with a mixture of friends from the Island as well as visitors from elsewhere. This year our fellow dinner guests were all Island residents, and we became aware of a few who went traveling abroad to visit family elsewhere.

Joan Apt and David Smith went to Stamford, Conn., to spend Thanksgiving with Joan’s sister, Lesley, and her husband Doug, for a feast with 29 family members. Bless their hearts.

Christopher Smith went to Bloomington, Ill., to celebrate the holiday with his father Mike Craughwell. Donald Childs has gone to Florida for a couple of weeks’ vacation.

And Anna Alley has made three trips in the past month to Attleboro, home of her daughter Nicole and Nicole’s family. The first two visits were unexpected — one to help out the family after Anna’s grandson Henry’s surgery, the second after Nicole tore a muscle in her leg. But trip number three was anticipated and scheduled: a family Thanksgiving dinner.

Meanwhile, major changes are happening to the Victorian house between Anna’s home and the Field Gallery. The Ivan and Virginia Rosenthal house has been sold to to Dr. Nathaniel Price, who is one of the primary care physicians at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Dr. Price and his family also have a home in Cambridge. Welcome, new neighbors, to the old town center.

Thank you to the selectmen for voting to reduce the real estate tax burden on full-time residents by 30 per cent. That is a much-appreciated Christmas gift

The town’s parks and recreation committee has announced a winter recreation program for students in grades one through five on Saturdays beginning Dec. 6. The program offers sports, a gym class for toddlers and an art program as soon as an art instructor is found.

The town will again host its annual holiday party at the Grange hall on Thursday, Dec. 11, starting at 5:30 p.m.. All are welcome. It is pot luck and a good way to meet your fellow West Tisburyites.

Birthday celebrants this week include Valerie Becker and Carlos Montoya on Friday, Nov. 28, Nova Smith and Glenn DeBlase on Saturday, Nov. 29 and Violet Cabot on Sunday, Nov. 30. Susan Meltzer and Jenny Allen are the birthday girls on Tuesday, Dec. 2. Lorraine Wells and Amanda Cohen share the birthday spotlight on Thursday, Dec. 4.

My wish for all is that you still feel stuffed on Friday, and your fridge is loaded with leftovers.

Happy Thanksgiving.