Decorating Day

In many households across the country, folks use the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend as a time to decorate their homes for Christmas.

With this year’s Thanksgiving being relatively late, you turn the calendar and come back to work on Monday and, bam, it’s December! So, better to go ahead and do the deed while you have a minute. From this point forward, the calendar will be full of parties and potlucks, concerts and carols.

At our house, the Saturday after Thanksgiving has been designated as our ‘decorating day’ for years.

Lisa and I are not really that prolific when it comes to home décor. We do ‘ok’ but it’s not our thing.

But there is something special about this time of year. I think our home never looks better than it does when it is fully decked out in holiday splendor. And as I write this evening, the candles in the windows are glistening, the mantle is festive and our two trees are in full holiday bloom.

Lisa and Paul did the heavy lifting for this year’s tree trimming (because of my recent surgery and a nasty cold I picked up Thanksgiving night). And they did a marvelous job. I did what I could do to help.

I remarked, at some point during the proceedings, that you reach a certain comfort zone when you have been living at a place for a while. We’ve been in this home 12 Christmases, now, so we know what works.

• Christmas Card Holder –
  Between the two pantries in the kitchen
• Hanging Santa –
  Next to the bathroom door off the family room 
• Manger Scene –
  Looks lovely under the cross on the mantle

And so it goes.

It’s a full day of work from start to finish but, as I’m sure you have discovered, it’s a lot of fun. And, on top of that, for nostalgic folks like myself, it’s a day steeped in tradition.

For other creatures, it’s an opportunity to find a comfy spot for a nap.

So many of the ornaments that grace our trees have a story behind them. For example, some relate to vacation destinations; others pertain to past employment or volunteer activities. There is our collection of ‘when the ones were kids’ pieces.

We also have our ’12 Days’ ornament collection. It informed our own ’12 Days’ tradition.

Then, there is the sports tree. That is a topic for an additional post.

We started in the morning with our house in its normal mode; by late evening it was dressed for the holidays. We’ll surely enjoy the warmth and festive feeling it brings.

JG

Originally posted 12/1/2014