Christmas Decor

Posts Tagged ‘Christmas Decor’

I’ll Be Home for (a White) Christmas

Posted in canada, christmas, WONDER, tagged christmas, Christmas Decor, Christmas Tree, East Coast, Home, Mother, Nativity, Snow, Snowman on December 19, 2011| 3 Comments »

Woohoo! I walk out of a quickly filling big box store, just nine sleeps to Christmas day, and snow flakes are starting to fall from the pregnant clouds. I am in the right place!

I have been humming “I’ll be Home for Christmas” since my son and I boarded the plane on the west coast, heading for the east. And now I get to hum “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” (okay, confession time, I have been humming that since November first … but, I digress).

It is so good to be here, at the home of my birth, as the Christmas season is in full motion. I get to see my parents, my brothers and their families, other family members, friends and old familiar places.

I am discovering that the one way that my mom and I are not the same is Christmas decor. She LOVES it! I usually twiddle my thumbs all Christmas day, hoping my family will let me take the tree down on Boxing Day (it often comes down around the New Year … sigh).

For instance, there are snowmen EVERYWHERE around her house! They are in every room (the bathroom could be called the snowman room (kind of makes you wonder if that is where snowman ‘poop’ came from. She could have a store, and make a mint, just by selling her snowmen.

Then there are the Christmas dishes (sets, mugs, glasses, serving dishes) that fill her china cabinet. There are not enough family members to utilize all of them.

Then there is the tree … I feel inadequate just sitting in the same room as her Christmas tree. It is … perfect! It looks better than any tree in any store that has been professionally decorated! I would not even post a pick of mine on the internet!

I do love how my mom hangs on to things (some things). My mom has on her refrigerator a nativity that she has been putting on her refrigerator for (we added it up) over thirty-five years. It was on a bag of “Ben’s” bread. Mom used her sharp eyes to cut each piece out perfectly (she is the queen of the line, “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right the first time” … therapy is the only cure for that one … just sayin’). Then she wets each piece and presses it to the fridge, in a perfect line.

All joking aside (otherwise my mom might send me packing for defaming her 😉 ), the time here will go quickly, I am sure. It is such a blessing to be able to be here at this time of year. Nostalgia is reigning in my mind and heart! Now if the snow would just hurry up and show my son what a real snowstorm is!

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Posted in christmas, WONDER, tagged Christmas Decor, Decorating, Focus for Christmas, Nativity, Nativity Set on November 30, 2011| 2 Comments »

Shhhh! Do not tell anyone, but I hate decorating for Christmas.

I know, I have committed a terrible sin, by even thinking such a thing. Truly, I do not enjoy it at all. To me it is just another thing that I ‘must’ do. I used to love to do the outdoor lights, the indoor lights (all over the house), and various other decor, but that was when I worked part time, and had more time.

The one Christmas decor that I do still love to get out are my collection of nativity sets. Yes, that is right, I said sets. A number of years ago, I was frustrated by the fact that, no matter how hard I tried, my house just did not look as good at Christmas as the beautifully decorated stores. Since I knew I would never have their budget, or their expertise, I decided to stop competing with the impossible, and instead focus on what Christmas means to me.

As I was browsing through the clearance section of a store, after Christmas I saw a beautiful nativity set for sixty percent off (and for someone like me, with blood of the Scots coursing through my veins, it was something I could not resist). As I unpacked that set, the following Christmas season, I thought to myself, this is the perfect focus for my Christmas decor, because for me the focus of Christmas is the story of the birth of Jesus.

Since that time I have collected seven magnetic (my advent nativity for the fridge), hanging, lit or table top sets, plus countless smaller tree ornaments. A few of my sets have already been handed down to our kids, when it became apparent that they held special importance to them. And one of them I will share in the days to come (once I convince my man servants to haul them out of storage).

I may hate decorating, but each year it is these sets of plastic, ceramic, wood, metal, cloth and glass that take me out of the commercialism and chaos, and slow my pace as I contemplate the beautiful, world-changing puzzle that God put together when He sent His son to this Earth.

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