30(+) Days of Thanksgiving, Day 35: Christmas Decorating…sort of

In our family customs and traditions, we have postponed the sights and sounds of Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving in this way:

1. NO CHRISTMAS MUSIC in the house, offices, or cars until AFTER Thanksgiving dinner has been served and cleaned up. (We made one (1) EXCEPTION TO POLICY this year when the Thanksgiving Turkey Chef—Doug—requested his favorite Christmas carol while preparing the turkey & fixings in the kitchen. We played one version only of the carol.)

2. NO CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS until the First Saturday in December.

After that, Kelly goes into a Christmas decorating frenzy. My chores:

• help put the Thanksgiving/Fall decorations away in the attic,
• carry the Christmas decorations down from the attic—a seemingly never-ending freight train load of large plastic totes carefully labeled “Christmas Decorations”,
• assemble our Christmas tree and string the lights on the tree, and then,
• optionally, string lights on the outside of the house.

In recent years, the boys (especially Matt) have pitched in to help me complete my list.
Meanwhile, Kelly is:

• rearranging the strands of lights on the tree
• puts the garlands and ornaments on the tree
• places the various other Christmas crafts and decorations strategically around the house
• puts the garland and lights on the stairway bannister
• lights the scented candles and scented wax burners
• puts the garland and lights around the front door
• packs away the packing materials and debris from the decorating blitzkrieg
• throwing away the Christmas lights from last year that don’t work any more. (What happens to them in the attic between January and November?)
• shopping for replacement and additional strands of Christmas lights
• and etc.

Photo 1: Berlin, Germany, 1990

Photo 2: Walden, NY, 2011

This process usually takes 2-3 days to complete, though Kelly will continue for a couple of weeks to adjust, move, add and take away from her collection. The crafts and tree ornaments are, I think, her favorite part. Each one of them is a unique treasure, valued not for their appraised worth, but rather for the memory each evokes. Some have weathered the years with us—29 Christmases as a family now—and some remind us of places we’ve been. The small framed portrait of the three boys with Father Christmas, taken in Berlin, Germany, around 1990, (see photo 1) is especially dear. The little stuffed Christmas bear clothed in the red suit labeled “Baby’s First Christmas” goes back to 1984 and the Baby Derrin’s first Christmas. The bear for years moved continuously in and out of the tree; I put it in, then Kelly would take it out and put it on the floor under the tree, or in the little wooden rocking chair. Finally, a few years ago, Kelly gave in to my whining and now is resigned to leaving it in the tree (see photo 2).

  Each year it seems new decorations appear: an ornament here, a craft there. Part of our tradition is for Kelly to wait to see how long it takes for me to notice the new addition. (As detectives go, Kelly is the keen, sharp-eyed observer like Sherlock Holmes, while I am more the disheveled, clumsy oaf like Columbo, who seems to fall into my discoveries accidentally.)

It is a wonder to behold, as Kelly gradually (but remarkably quickly) transforms our home into a Christmas fairy tale set. The result—a welcoming, festive and comfortable place in which we cherish the message and the memories of Christmases past, present and yet to come.

I expect that this will not be the only entry I compose here this month that references our Christmas customs and traditions. Since Kelly is home today working on the Christmas-ing of our home, it is foremost in my thoughts of thankfulness today.

Thank You, Heavenly Father, for giving us so much to celebrate as we anticipate our renewed joy at the Birth of our Savior, Christ the Lord. Thank you for the beauty of the lights and colors, the aromatic fragrances, and the cheerful memories that attend this custom of decorating our home.

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