I was recently lamenting the dusty box in my basement full of my pre-child holiday decorations. Each year for the past 5 years, fewer and fewer items emerge from it. This year, I barely tried. I have 3 kids this Christmas — one of whom wants to eat any and all objects he can get to, and the other two are bringing home lovely “creations” that usually resemble Christmas (well, at least they are green and red) on a weekly basis. Also, we are traveling this year and won’t even be home for the week before or after the actual holiday. So, for all of these reasons, I did not put much effort into Christmas decorations. Where would I put anything anyway? Fancy Christmas towels? Ha! For sticky little syrupy hands to wipe on?? Linen napkins with Christmas napkin rings?? Haven’t seen ’em in years. Santa candlesticks?? Right… for my dining room table — which my son now officially calls the “Lego table”?? We did put up a tree, but even the ornaments are feeling abandoned. Nothing breakable down low, where little hands can reach them = lots of expensive ornaments staying in their boxes in recent years.
As I pine for years past when I used all of my beautiful decorations, and as I peruse Pinterest and pin (for some silly reason) decorating ideas that I will use who knows when, I look around my house. I realized something today. My house is more festive, more Christmas-y than ever before. There is a holiday decoration in every nook and cranny. Where there used to be a porcelain antique Santa, there is now this snowman:
To replace my lush green holly wreath, I now have this wreath:
On my mantle, there are no Santa candlesticks. They have been replaced with this Christmas tree masterpiece and the accompanying card we received:
And the window clings… This is what happened when my 3-year old got a hold of the individual pieces to make a snowman and Santa, after which she exclaimed, “What a beautiful job I did!”
I am not sure when the old box of decorations will get re-visited, if ever. But I think my house is plenty festive these days without them. And yes, kids, a beautiful job you did.