In Defense of Early Decorating
Our Christmas tree is up! OK, OK - back off, rabid anti-Christmas-before-Thanksgivingers. ;-) I used to be one of you. :-P I was filled with indignation at any & all early hints of Christmas...but then we had children. I am so filled with the holiday spirit, I can't hold it in! I'm definitely not trying to rush past Thanksgiving - we love that, too! (Yay, Gratitude Tree, This is America, Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyagers, talking about our special family recipes, etc.) But we usually travel for Thanksgiving, and I want to be able to come home and flip the switch to have Christmas in full blaze. I have a few friends who hold off, and I completely respect where they're coming from; but waiting doesn't feel quite right for me. I can't get enough celebration; I feel like we went through a time with heavier & darker weights bearing down, and now I just want to live in Jubilee! :-D For me, having our tree up now doesn't take anything away from Thanksgiving, Advent, St. Nicholas Day, etc. Plus, b/c we also travel around Christmas, we can't do the "light it on Christmas Eve" thing, anyway - we'd never have a tree of our own! Finally, I am way too lazy to do all the work of putting it up to not have it up as loooooong as possible - I'm all about Candlemas, y'all. ;-)
I always hear people complaining about getting "wrapped up in the Christmas machine" (do you feel the same? read this NOW!!!) and I don't let myself get like that. Having our tree up now, designing our Christmas cards now (b/c we always have a new address, so I want to get that out to people before they send theirs to our old one :-P), finishing up a lot of my Christmas shopping now (we honestly don't have a ton of people - no shopping for extended fam; it's nice - enough to feel generous & festive, not burdened) allows me to feel calm about Christmas...and sitting here tonight basking in the glow of our tree (b/c although I'd like to wait until Nov. 25th, I totally could NOT resist plugging it in! :-D) I *do* feel a calm peace about the holidays - ALL of them, Thanksgiving included - wash over me and make me smile.
Decorating notes:
80°F outside + 66°F inside = OPEN WINDOWS for free heat during the day! :-D Almost record warmth + getting out the Christmas décor + starting work on Christmas cards = MY DREAM NOVEMBER! Thank you, Lord!
The 1st two casualties of Christmas - 2 of my fave ornaments: a glittery globe and the Colossuem in Rome. :'(
I realized we've never had our tree on hardwood before; carpet is much more forgiving of tree trimming slips... If it's hardwood next year, I'll extend blankets waaay out beyond our tree skirt while decorating.
What do your trees usually look like? I've written before about our style. Tell me about yours!
I always hear people complaining about getting "wrapped up in the Christmas machine" (do you feel the same? read this NOW!!!) and I don't let myself get like that. Having our tree up now, designing our Christmas cards now (b/c we always have a new address, so I want to get that out to people before they send theirs to our old one :-P), finishing up a lot of my Christmas shopping now (we honestly don't have a ton of people - no shopping for extended fam; it's nice - enough to feel generous & festive, not burdened) allows me to feel calm about Christmas...and sitting here tonight basking in the glow of our tree (b/c although I'd like to wait until Nov. 25th, I totally could NOT resist plugging it in! :-D) I *do* feel a calm peace about the holidays - ALL of them, Thanksgiving included - wash over me and make me smile.
Decorating notes:
80°F outside + 66°F inside = OPEN WINDOWS for free heat during the day! :-D Almost record warmth + getting out the Christmas décor + starting work on Christmas cards = MY DREAM NOVEMBER! Thank you, Lord!
The 1st two casualties of Christmas - 2 of my fave ornaments: a glittery globe and the Colossuem in Rome. :'(
What do your trees usually look like? I've written before about our style. Tell me about yours!
We have a quilted tree skirt under our hardwood floor, and it's pretty well padded, so we rarely have ornament fatalities. I'm always bummed when we lose one too.
ReplyDeleteWe started boycotting Thanksgiving travel years ago, and instead cram Christmas with both families in two separate states...it sucks for us with all the flying, but at the same time, we have a holiday to enjoy in our own home.
Although we wait until after Thanksgiving to do the Christmas stuff (I actually would like Advent to be the kick-off, if I had a choice), I can completely understand having it done before travelling that weekend. Steve would love for us to have a Christmas tree year-round, and he's giddy at the local radio station that starts playing Christmas music 24/7 on Nov. 1. We have a tiny foot-tall Christmas tree in our house, complete with lights, to appease his year-round Christmas-ny-ness. :)
For the first time ever, I boycotted doing Christmas cards last year. I think all but a couple people that we send cards to are friends with me on FB, and so as much as I love sending the cards, it didn't seem to make sense. But, now I'm feeling nostalgic about it this year, so I may start doing it again...
Congrats to you for decorating when the time is right for you! Being a traditionalist ;) we typically go out and buy a live tree the day after Thanksgiving. It gets decorated that weekend and comes down the day we return from our Christmas travels.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry about those broken ornaments! I definitely have favorites that I look forward to putting up every year.
Heather - we never go crazy with Thanksgiving travel. We do usually do the double Christmas thing, although all driving. Not this year, though, since it's a lot of $$$ to fly to MI and JB can't take 4 days off just to drive 2 each way, (it's 16 hours = NO THANK YOU!!!) I've always loved the double Christmas celebrations, b/c they made it feel like it lasted a lot longer...but I feel oddly relaxed that we're not going to be busting our tails, as usual. :-D I KNOW JB's happier!!! :-P
ReplyDeleteI feel a bit silly sending our Christmas cards to FB friends, too, but I just can't stop. :-P We have quite a number of non-FB peeps on our 100-person Christmas card list, and I do try to weed the FBers who don't really care about cards off; but I *MUST* reciprocate, if they send *us* one, so... :-P
Tracey - I grew up ONLY ever having live trees. I LOVE them!!! But since we're often gone for a week or two, it would be a total fire hazard by the time we returned. (Plus, artificial gives me the excuse to keep it up WAY longer! :-D)