I'm that person.
It's not that I don't like Christmas. I love Christmas. I like most holidays. Just one….at…a…time.
If not wanting to see Christmas decorations in the stores
in October makes me a Grinch, then color me green. If not wanting to decorate for Christmas in
November makes me Scrooge, then bah humbug.
I did not spend my Thanksgiving weekend decorating for Christmas. I spent it, well, celebrating THANKSGIVING
(and watching college football).
As Thanksgiving weekend came to an end, we celebrated the
first Sunday of Advent. Now, I'm a
stickler for semantics. Advent is a season
of preparation starting four Sundays prior to Christmas. If you have an "Advent Calendar"
with only 24 items, it is not an Advent Calendar. It is a "Christmas Countdown." Absolutely nothing wrong with them (we have
several), but let's call an apple an apple.
As it is a season
of preparation, not a day, I tend to use the whole season to 'prepare.' I'm typically
more of a planner than a procrastinator (at least with this), but I've gotten
to where I just "spread the cheer" throughout Advent. The first day of December the
fall/Thanksgiving decorations came down and I put out a few Christmas
decorations; mostly hanging wreaths outside and Rachel helped Jeff hang lights
outside. As far as the neighbors knew,
my house was decorated for Christmas.
However, I was in no hurry to put out all the rest of the
decorations inside. I enjoy decorations,
but I do not enjoy clutter. I will enjoy
packing them all carefully away in January and making my house feel ten times
larger. So, the other decorations come out gradually. I mean, when the story says "the
stockings were hung by the chimney with care" they weren't referring to
sometime in November! (Ours were hung on Dec. 21st).
Instead of our big tree this year, we put out our two smaller
artificial trees and we decorated moose antlers. You're not familiar with this Christmas
tradition? That's because it's new. Jeff inherited the moose antlers when his
uncle passed away this fall so this is their first Xmas in Omaha. We have not yet determined where their
permanent location will be, so they've been in our family room.
Now for those of you not familiar with this particular
animal, moose are rather large. Their
antlers are proportionally large as well.
With this in mind, I indicated that I wasn't putting up our big tree AND
having these massive antlers in my family room. Surprisingly, the girls did not care at
all. Jeff and I temporarily 'mounted'
the antlers on a railing and Rachel decorated them with lights, garland, ribbon
and a few ornaments. Elisabeth was
grateful to not have to decorate since she is busy with finals, Jeff's prized
antlers are (temporarily) a focal point of our family room, and I have less
clutter in my house.
In other words, now everyone is happy.
And isn't that what Christmas is really about? Spreading joy? I realize decorated antlers might not bring
joy to every family, but it's helping us keep a cherished family member who is
spending his first Christmas in heaven a little closer to us this year.
So from our 'uniquely' decorated house to yours....
Merry Christ-Moose and Happy New Year!
P.S. I'll be
"spreading the cheer" beyond Advent by sending New Year's cards....or
maybe Martin Luther King Jr. Day cards.....Our Xmas card has become sort of
like waiting for the Christ child. You
know it's coming, you just don't know exactly when!
