So, where are the drones – on holiday?

A recent story in the Asbury Park Press quoted the Ocean County Sheriff as saying that drone reports have “decreased considerably.”

They had peaked over the weekend of Dec. 7 and 8, he said.

What this means is subject to interpretation, but here’s one observation – whoever was operating the drones must have had Christmas shopping to do.

That, naturally, would exclude drones coming from an “Iranian mothership.”

Yes, Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew said that. And his GOP colleague Chris Smith also pointed to North Korea, China or Russia. Both raised those possibilities without any real evidence, mind you, as the mayhem over drones peaked about two week ago.

An interesting New York Times story on Christmas Day – admittedly not a high readership day – nonetheless attributed the reports to a contractor working at Picatinny Arsenal, Rockaway Township, who by chance saw a drone while sitting in his car near the base in mid-November. Since this was – and is – a military base, he reported his sighting to authorities.

Now we know what happened next.

Drone reports seemed to multiply every day, or rather, night.

Social media, as one would suspect, quickly became a sounding board for reports and, of course, all types of offbeat conspiracy tales.

We were being spied on.

Our enemies were up to no good.

Our government was up to no good.

Watch for the “dirty bomb.”

It wasn’t just social media and it wasn’t merely politicians like Van Drew and Smith.

Just about all elected officials from Phil Murphy on down demanded answers about the drones.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer held more than one press event about the drones and even put a page on his website for people to report what they are seeing. That was on Dec 16.

Now, as we have gotten to Christmas, sightings have dropped.

They can certainly pick up again, but nobody knows.

What we do know is that despite the hoopla, nothing untoward happened.

Which does bring up a rough parallel to the “War of the Worlds” spoof about Martians landing in New Jersey in 1938. Imagine if something similar occurred today in the age of social media. That would be scary.

Drones are not Martians, but as of now, a lot of the reaction seems a bit overblown.

Then again, a lot of this has to do with personal beliefs.

I saw a report about multiple drones – the size of SUVs – spotted over Roxbury Township, Morris County.

Hmm. I live in Roxbury and I have not seen any drones. Then again, I haven’t looked for any.

As stated, it’s all a matter of personal perspective.