Over the past few years I have not always decorated our home
for the Christmas season; this includes not putting up a Christmas tree every
year. I love Christmas, enjoy Christmas
sermons at church, fully delight in Christmas songs and have fun with family
and friends during this special time.
But for some reason, I often have a hard time putting up decorations.
I think part of it stems from the fact that when I was
younger and in school, taking down the tree and trimmings meant Christmas break
was fast coming to an end. This ending
of a two week break always did make me somewhat depressed; my free time was and
still is important to me, and school was not something about which I was always
thrilled. Also I do not have anyone in the
house that experiences child-like glee, excitement and anticipation of
Christmas; so there is no pure innocent enthusiasm I can catch from others in
my house. But still I feel the house is
empty without any kind of decorations and that the spirit of the season has not
fully settled into our home.
When I was living with my parents, my dad would take us out
to a field nearby for us to search for and cut down a Christmas tree. That was always a fun and exhilarating time
for me. We would get the tree back to
the house, put in a stand, and my sister and I would decorate it with
combination of ornaments we made, given to us by a grandmother and from a
store. Putting up the tree and knowing
what lay ahead for us was such a pleasure to me as child and even into my teen
years. But then later in my teen years I was
the only child left in the house and taking down the tree after Christmas
became more like a chore. Not to
mention Christmas break coming rapidly to an end really dampened my mood.
But here I am many years later and I cannot settle my
feelings on Christmas decorations. Since
being in the real world and becoming a working adult, I have learned better how
to deal with my feelings for the couple of days we might get off for
Christmas. Though I still strongly miss
those 2 week school breaks, I hope today’s students do not take that time for
granted because before they know it will all be over.
So back to decorating my house. For a few of the years we lived in a loft in
Atlanta, I would get about a 4 foot tree and put it on the dining area
table. The reason: there is no telling
what our dog would have done to the tree and ornaments while we were away if it
had been standing on the floor in the traditional manner. Earlier this month while telling one of my
co-workers I was not putting up a tree this Christmas, she jokingly called me
‘un-American.’ Since Thanksgiving I have
wrestled with the idea of decorating our house or not and felt slightly
distressed by the thoughts of both.
After much consideration, I finally decided on putting up a
few decorations with a winter theme. So
I bought some small, woodland, winter-themed ornaments and set them on a
decorative plate and put them in the living room. These ornaments consist of a super cute
squirrel, a snowman, ‘pine branches’ with accompanying pine cones, an
old-fashioned lantern and a couple of other small woodsy baubles. I did make two small ‘Christmas trees’ that
are cone-shaped and made of foam; these are wrapped in a wintry-themed wrapping
paper. And on our front door, I have a
wintry themed wreath. So with these
trimmings, I feel good about leaving them up through January; though I will
take down the “Christmas trees”. I
wanted things to leave up for a while and not look Christmas-y, and I think I
accomplished my goal. So now my house
does not feel empty, even though I do not have up many things, and I feel a
little more prepared for Christmas and the spirit it brings.
So Merry Christmas, Season’s Greetings, Happy Holidays and
Happy New Year to all!!! I hope you
celebrate in whatever way makes the season merry and bright to you!
Todays pun courtesy of the interwebs:
What did the Gingerbread Man put on his bed? A cookie sheet!
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