Decking the Halls

When I was younger with fewer children and fewer demands on my time I enjoyed going all out at Christmas. I mean, I never went over-the-top freaky about it like some people I know. (My mom’s house literally morphs into the north pole, Macy’s, and a gingerbread house all rolled up into one magical place. The grandchildren are transported, and honestly, so am I. But. Ahem. I can’t do that.)

And as time has passed and our lives have expanded, I’ve had to pare down on all the Christmas paraphernalia we’ve accumulated over the years. Not only do I not have time to put it all up and then take it all down again a few days later (it seems) every year, BUT I don’t have any place to store it anymore!

Did you know you can make your house look and feel like Christmas with just a few items? You probably did. You could probably write this article. Nevertheless, I’m going to fancy that you have no idea and tell you what I do anyway simply because I have a hankering to do this. Here we go:

1. I love LED candles. I bought a set at Costco three years ago with not one ounce of buyer’s remorse. Just happiness and joy every time I get them out. No melting. No mess. No danger of a fire. Just beautiful looking candles where and when I want them. I love them on our piano with some ribbon.

2. I put a garland on our stairway banister. Last year my floral, leafy thing with all the glitter fell apart, so I just bought big, BIG ribbon to wrap around. I’m sort of excited not to have glitter all over my stairway this year. See how simple things are getting? I should have accidentally torn that old garland many years ago.

3. A Christmas tree. I know some Christians think it’s wicked to have one because it’s tempting to worship it. BUT, since I would never be tempted to worship something that hatched a million bazillion spiders in my home one Christmas, I get to have one with a clean conscience. If your tree ever fell over or leaked water or sprinkled needles everywhere, then it’s likely you are also safe from tree worship. A lit-up tree full of decorations the kids have collected and/or made over the years sure sets the stage for a beautiful Christmas.

4. Stockings hung on a fireplace mantle. Children love to dream about what will fill them on Christmas morning. Don’t have a mantle? HERE’s an article with some other ideas for how to hang ’em up real purty. (Follow my holiday Pinterest board for more ideas!)

Photo: Holidash

5. A wreath on the front door. I usually buy mine from a local boy scout. This gets chucked at the end of the season. No storage necessary.

6. A poinsettia centerpiece on the dinner table. Again, this gets thrown away once it has lived out its life.

7. A creche. I actually collect these, so we have a few of them strategically placed all over the house at Christmas. But really, you only need one. We used to have a large one under the tree that I just loved. But so did my kids, and after several characters lost their limbs and heads to overzealous child play, we decided to retire it to the garbage bin.

8. A special advent calendar. The kids love to do this every year.

Let’s Go for a Sleigh Ride

What about all the holiday activities that can fill our time and create a stress of their own? I used to think nothing of cramming every single week end with activities, but as I’ve gotten older, we’ve really cut back. Now during the month of December I like to go to one performance oriented activity (the Nutcracker or a musical concert) and host one gathering in our home. In past years we’ve had a children’s caroling party, a neighborhood open house, a church gathering of 4-5 families with games and food, a Christmas movie night with friends, etc.. This year our 14-year-old is hosting a party with a bunch of her friends.

This leaves a lot of margin for simple family activities like baking cookies, sledding, ice skating, and just hanging out at home.

Other Traditions

We don’t do anything breathtaking. But in case you’re curious:

1. The day after Thanksgiving we decorate the tree. This is also when we break out the Christmas music. Last year was the first year I had Spotify. It rocks. I had every Christmas album I could ever dream of having right at my fingertips, and I didn’t have to mess with a bunch of discs. Talk about simple.

2. The day after the day after Thanksgiving we do some baking. We have our favorites each year, and we like to try a new recipe or two as well. Pinterest makes this fun. We actually bake on other evenings as well. We have some for dessert, and then we freeze the rest for a big platter on Christmas eve.

3. On Christmas eve we have my parents over, go to church, come home for chili, salad, and a cheese platter, open presents (we love presents), and then eat cookies and drink cider and nog.

4. On Christmas day we go to my parents home (the magical one I mentioned above) and spend the day with my extended family. There are 18 grandchildren – and this year one of them (my son) is married, so that makes 19 cousins total. There are lots of people, lots of presents, and lots of food.

Question: What about you? Share some ways you’ve kept Christmas simple! You can leave a comment by clicking here.