Five measly weeks until Christmas. How did that happen? Only six weeks until the end of the year. Six weeks to finish 2023 well. For some reason, I wasn’t really getting into Christmas this year. Is it because my wee girlee is not going to be here – again? Because I’m exhaustified? Is it because my husband needs a hip replacement and can’t get one? Kind of puts a damper on things. I went to a Christmas Market and I thought, there’s nothing new under the sun. I know, this is starting to sound a little like Ecclesiastes.
I was planning on decorating the house for Christmas on my week break from work – last week, that is now over. I opened the door to the storage room and I thought, what am I doing with twelve Rubbermaid bins of Christmas decorations? I got tired just looking at them. I thought to myself, why don’t I just toss up a few garlands and some mini lights, get one real tree and be done with it? Actually the curtain lights were already up so I thought I would just piggy back on those. What comes up must come down, you know. No matter how many Hallmark movies or Debbie MacComber novels I read, I am just at a loss for making Christmas.
My daughter facetimed me today from London and she is not feeling great either. She has been under the weather longer than usual for her and just not that enthusiastic about working under duress. However, this could possibly be her last Christmas in London, so she is going to try to make the best of it. I relayed that I sort of was feeling like I didn’t care about Christmas this year and she was alarmed. Well, not so much that I didn’t care but that I just couldn’t be bothered to decorate. I thought, I’d rather read by the fire and drive around and look at the Christmas lights and feast off of everyone else’s efforts. I realized, once I said it out loud, that if I’m not excited about Christmas, it’s the end of the line for me. I’ve always been the Christmas queen. In our family, at least. Maybe I’ve spent one too many Christmases being the Christmas fairy. I just don’t know. What I DO know for sure is that I needed to snap out of this. Because truly, if I stop caring about Christmas, what’s left??
I needed some red in my decor. I have tons of red. Red drapes. Red rugs. Red blankets. Red cushions, Red Everything. I was avoiding bringing it out but we need a little Christmas right this very minute so I had to get some red up and get it up quick. Once again, I opened the door to the storage room and began pulling out the Christmas bins until I was past the point of no return. I found red french toile valances that I forgot I had. So I ironed those up and hung them on the main level. Exactly what was needed. Found a stack of red french toile plates I was saving for Lexie. Took them upstairs. Added red silk flowers to my existing urn. Red cushions to the couches. Red blankets over the backs of chairs. Already everything is looking so much better. Jollier. It’s putting me in a mood. A Christmas mood. A festive mood.
It IS worth going to the trouble to achieve that ambiance. My family is used to it. After 42 years of marriage I’ve always overdone Christmas. They’d probably stage an intervention if I didn’t decorate. I know the true meaning isn’t decorating. But the decor brings me back to the true meaning. As do the lights. Especially the lights. That’s what Christmas is all about. The light of the world and I need some of those symbolic lights going on in our home.
So now, I’m getting overly enthusiastic and I’m revamping things. It’s like I had a renewed burst of Christmas energy. Taking wreaths apart and redoing them. Finding new ways to use old decorations. We are getting a real tree this year so I can’t get that until the beginning of December but in the meantime I have a LEGO Christmas Village to set up. That’s going to require moving some furniture around. I was actually trying to avoid redecorating the house just for Christmas and then having to redecorate again in the spring. But hello? That’s what I do. That’s what I’ve always done. That’s who I am. So now I have five weeks to totally overdo it. Five weeks to keep tweaking and adding. I don’t have to buy a thing. I have it all. So putzing with Christmas is where you’ll find me in the evenings for the rest of the year. By the time I’m finished it will be time to take it down. That’s the way of it.
The Red Plaid Apron 