Christmas Tips

Once December arrives, the air may have more of a chill to it. Winter is right around the corner and depending on where you live, you may be pulling out your sweaters in preparation. Something that most people enjoy though in December, is decorating for Christmas. I know that it is something my family and I have come to enjoy greatly. The first weekend of every December, is the weekend that we have decided will always be reserved for decorating for Christmas. This includes a trip to the attic to bring down the boxes of Christmas decorations from the previous years. Each member of the family gets a role in decorating for Christmas. My husband and son are in charge of getting the lights out and tested. Once they are satisfied, they disappear outside for some outdoors decorating for Christmas. They will put lights on our front porch and bushes. My daughter loves decorating for Christmas. She pulls out all of the inside decorations, dusts them off, and starts on her journey in decorating for Christmas in the
house. I continue to check up on everyone and decorate the fireplace mantel and inside windows.

Once we are all done with our decorating for Christmas assignments, we settle in for watching some Christmas movies and baking cookies. That weekend of decorating for Christmas has been a tradition for many years now. I have passed that onto my family because decorating for Christmas was always an important part of my household when I was a child. My mother and father would assign each child a role in decorating for Christmas - no matter how small the role was. It made each of us feel like we were contributing and making some decisions on our own. The house always seemed more festive after we were done decorating for Christmas because we had all put some of our own personal touch into it.

Decorating for Christmas has become a chore for too many people. They get the boxes out and go through the traditional routine of decorating. There isn’t too much enjoyment in it. I find that incredibly sad because no matter if you’re a family of one or twenty - decorating for Christmas can be such a joyous event. It is a time that you can reflect on memories of previous years of decorating for Christmas with loved ones that may or may not still be with you. It is a chance to be creative and decorate differently than you ever have before. Just don’t go too overboard on your decorating for Christmas and end up with one of those lawns that has every inch of grass covered with some tacky decoration. A few ‘for sale’ signs may pop up after the holidays are over, if you decide to turn your decorating for Christmas into a neighborhood eyesore.

It is getting close to Christmas time again and this means digging out holiday decorations and lights. This is my favorite time of the year so I have accumulated many decorations. Each year I think that I need to go through the boxes and discard or donate things that I no longer use, but it is difficult for me to part with the items. I also like to buy something new every year to add to the collection and to have a variation on the decorating. My husband is telling me that we do not have room for anything more in the storage area so I either need to not buy anything or get rid of some things. We decided that we would pull out all the decorations well before Christmas this year so we could sort through what we have.

I discovered that I had purchased a Christmas wreath at the end of the season last year. I had forgotten about buying it at the end of the season sales. It is a pre-lit Christmas wreath and is suitable for indoor or outdoor use. When I bought it I had thought we would use it by our light post at the front of the house. My husband could not believe that I had forgotten about this because we had just ordered a Christmas wreath from the boy scouts. I told him that this was no big deal because we could always put the Christmas wreath that we had ordered on our front door.

We went through the many plastic storage container filled with ornaments, lights, figurines and other holiday decorations. We managed to fill two bins with items that we would donate to the local Goodwill store. The Goodwill store was very pleased that we were bringing in the items prior to the holidays. They said so often people made their donations after the holidays and then they had to store the items. This way the items would be available to the needy in time for the holidays. They were giving special appreciation gifts for those that donated any items. We had our choice of a Christmas wreath or evergreen garland. The wreaths and garland were donated by a local tree grower. We decided on the garland since we had the pre-lit wreath as well as the fresh Christmas wreath coming from the boy scouts. The garland was six feet long and would be a great addition to our mantel. My husband could not believe that we went to Goodwill to get rid of decorations and then came home with a new item. I of course was thrilled with the addition of the fresh garland for our home.