The month of December is flying by! I sent the holiday cards out on Monday, but it wasn’t until yesterday that I realized the month was half over and we still didn’t have a tree. I ran out to Home Depot and got one of their $25 specials – it looks like a gigantic shrub that someone pruned into a Christmas tree-shape. But it smells good and holds the ornaments and gives a festive air to the house.
When we first moved here, I got into home décor in a big way – selecting paint colors and making coordinated bedding, creating themes with lamps, pillows and rugs, arranging attractive vignettes on each shelf. For a couple of Christmases I went wild with color themes, teal and silver one year, magenta and gold another. They were lovely, but the Piemaker would look around and ask, “aren’t you going to put up any Christmas colors?” He did not have much appreciation for a sparkling color-coordinated tree that did not have any of the homey, mismatched ornaments we both remember from our childhood holidays.
These days we’re back to a generalist decorating approach where we put up everything we’ve ever collected. This is not as much stuff as you might think, because we have very little from “before.” I think I must have had some ornaments and holiday decorations in my previous life, but I either left them there or lost them on the way here. There was one period in the late 90s when I moved five times in five years. Not conducive to holding onto things of sentimental value.
So although we have many boxes of pretty colored balls and teardrops and stars, we only have three items that are real keepsakes.
The first one is a little angel, an ornament given to me by loving relatives when I was a child.
It has a rustic macramé look and boasts the famous avocado green that was so popular in the 60s and 70s. I don’t know how I managed to hang on to this one but I’m glad I did.Skip forward 30-plus years, to when the Piemaker gave me this little polar bear for our first Christmas together.
It is very heavy, and has musical chimes. Awwwwww.
We actually spent the entire Christmas holiday moving in! Exhausting and stressful at the time, but it makes for fun memories now.Now our decorating is finished, the cards and gifts are mailed, and now all we have to do is watch some good old Christmas movies and eat holiday treats.
How about you – do you have a lifetime collection of miscellaneous ornaments that you enjoy every year, or do you prefer a more cohesive, formal look?
Katrina
Miscellaneous every time! Looking forward to getting out the rest of our decorations tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteDecorations like yours are much nicer than shop co-ordinated disposables.
Like you, we didn't bring much of life "before" to this one; clothes and personal items, and my family heirlooms. Nothing at all in the way of Christmas decorations, so we started new traditions together. The first year our tree was covered with green, red and gold vintage balls that I found, and it looked like something out of a Martha Stewart mag!, Each year we've added more mix and match ornaments that we pick up in our travels, so now it looks much more like the trees of my childhood. {Still no tree up here ~ planning to do it on Monday. I'm still not getting a decent nights sleep, and my energy level is soooo low!}
ReplyDeleteEnjoy those movies!
xo, Anita