About Those Christmas Decorations…

Well, here it is again–my least favorite time of the year!  I’m “knee-deep” in Christmas clutter, as I attempt to take down and pack away all things Christmas related.  I do not like doing this!  I drag my feet and procrastinate every year,  until the last ornament is put away–and I never start undecorating until New Year’s Day, or after.

My daughter, on the other hand, can hardly wait until after Thanksgiving to put all of her decorations up, then she begins taking them all down on the day after Christmas!  (I’m  barely functioning on the day after Christmas…)  I think my daughter actually broke her own record this year, when she took down and packed away all of her decorations in ONE DAY–the day after Christmas!  This may not sound like much of a feat to you, but you haven’t seen the amount of decorations that she has!  I’m talking SEVERAL trees and decorations in every room of the house!  After all, she is her mother’s daughter!

I really, really, really love my Christmas tree, and I hate to take it down!  I love each and every little ornament on it, and taking the tree down just means I will have to wait eleven long months to see those precious little ornaments again!  I’ve spent thirty-nine years collecting those things!  I may have to drag this chore out until the weekend…

How about you, do you like to take your Christmas decorations down quickly, or do you leave them up for a while after Christmas?

 

A Few Of My Favorite Christmas Things…

Let me begin by saying, “I love Christmas decorations!”  I always have.  I began collecting decorations way back in 1972, and although I’ve slowed down quite a bit, I’m still collecting.  By decorations, I mean all things Christmas–anything that strikes my fancy.

As you can imagine, some of my collection is getting old, and many things that used to be animated, have begun to fail.  I was sad this year, when the large skating pond Ed bought for me many years ago, finally stopped working.  I found pleasure, many years,  from watching those little figures gliding across their “frozen pond” while holiday music played.

The old train bit the dust this year, too.  Once I finally got enough new batteries for it, I was going to give it to our grandson to play with.  As hard as Ed tried, he couldn’t get the old train to work.  I was going  to throw it out, but Ed couldn’t stand to let it go…it’s in his work shed!  If you look close, in the old photo of Brad below, you can see the old Christmas train under the tree.  This photo is about 19 years old.

Some of my favorite Christmas decorations remind me of my mama because I purchased them from her while she was an Avon salesperson. All of these decorations are getting pretty old, too. Here’s a gingerbread house that I got from mama.

The house has a candle inside of it, but I’ve only lit it once or twice. These days I keep it inside of my curio cabinet during the Christmas season. Many of those little decorations surrounding the gingerbread house are gifts from former students.

I bought this ceramic Christmas tree from mama, too. It has scented crystals inside of it to make the room smell like a Christmas tree!   The little carolers surrounding the tree, I collected from a dollar store one year, simply because they reminded me of some people from our church–the choir!

Last, but not least, are my Santas From Around The World.  I saw these one Christmas and just had to have them.  The only problem was, by the time I saw them,  the store was already sold out of USA and Germany!  I bought the rest of the set anyway.  Meanwhile, without my knowledge,  Ed was searching high and low in all of the surrounding stores to find the USA and Germany pieces.  He found some in Savannah, and drove 120 miles, round trip, to get them for me.  I still can’t believe he did that!

Wow, I’m just getting started, and my word count tells me it’s time to wrap things up, so I’ll stop.  Perhaps I’ll do a “Favorite Things Part 2″ sometime.  For now, I’m off to wrap the rest of those Christmas gifts!

Six Word Saturday…December 4

My six words for today are:

Beginning to look like Christmas here!

I’ve been MIA from blogging for most of the week because I have been busy as a bee decorating for Christmas.  I’ve found that things that I usually do in 3 days have taken me 7 days this year!  I must be getting slower with age!  I officially finished decorating today, so I thought I’d show you some of what I’ve been doing all week.  Today I will show you what I did in my kitchen…

This is my kitchen counter.  I had to rearrange things to accommodate the decorations.  I always decorate the kitchen in a candy/gingerbread theme.tree holds my   You can’t tell, but the little tree is decorated with pretend candy and gingerbread cookies.  They look good enough to eat!   The sign at the top of the little tree says “Gingerbread brings love to the holidays”.  The little black shelf behind the Christmas tree  holds my Christmas salt and pepper shakers, and a gingerbread napkin holder. 

   

I can’t begin to tell you what a pain it is to put those lights and garland around that large window in my kitchen–but I do it every year–because my pleasure exceeds my pain.  The school teacher within me shows itself, and I decorate the window with window clings.  I did that at school for so many years…I decorate my kitchen window for every holiday, not just for Christmas!

I’ve been looking for a table runner for my kitchen table for a while.  I bought one, with Christmas trees on it, but it didn’t really go with my decor…and then I found this black one with candy canes on it!  It matched my kitchen perfectly since my colors are red, black and white.  I gave the other table runner to my daughter.

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks to Cate for hosting this fun meme.  Have a fun weekend–as for me, I’m going to see a Christmas Parade this evening!  I love night Christmas Parades!