A Little Christmas Spirit

Ugh! I get so stressed around the holidays! It just seems like there is never enough time!

Of course, I am behind on my Christmas Knitting, as usual. I've already pared down my list radically. (Poor T will not get a knitted gift this year. But I know he understands.) And I still might not finish!

Every year, I go down to the @#$%&*! wire. What is wrong with me?

So in the interest of preserving my sanity, I'm posting some pictures here of my holiday traditions and decorations. So this is partly for you, Gentle Reader, and partly for me. Seeing and reminiscing makes me less stressed.

One of our yearly traditions is the tree. In the past, we'd take all evening to set up, light, and decorate the tree. Of course, now that everyone is grown, it makes it a little difficult to get everyone together for that long. So, this year, Achilles and I saved time by setting up the tree beforehand.

Achilles loves the Christmas tree.

Most of my December, btw, is typically spent saying "Achilles! Get out of the tree!"

I like a very large, green tree. When I was little, we had a small aluminum tree (who remembers those?) and I was always awed by the folks who had those giant, green trees. But, you know, it was the 60's and aluminum was cool. (Wasn't it?) And my dad was not a huge fan of decorating for Christmas anyway.

We never decorated the outside of the house, for instance. Waste of time. Waste of electricity. Waste of money. My mom, however, would put us in the car and drive by other people's decorated houses to see the lights. To this day, I could point out four or five of my favorite decorated houses (but I can't tell you exactly where most of my friends lived).

I always loved doing that--driving around to look at lights. It was fun and my mom enjoyed it as much as we did. And it was something that we did with Mom. Back in those days, you didn't worry about gas (it was like 38 cents a gallon!) so a half hour drive was no big deal in that respect.

Sometimes you could see people's Christmas trees in the front window, all lit up. And that was really cool. Some people had green trees; some had white ones; some had the same mod aluminum tree we did. Some trees had themes--all one color or all icicle shaped ornaments or all teddy bears or the like. But my favorites were always the ones with a variety of decorations. There just seemed to be so much going on!

Since becoming an adult, I've shared the story of driving around and looking at lights with others. Apparently it was something a lot of families did--either because they couldn't afford the lights, or just didn't decorate the house, or religious differences precluded it.

Anyway, that's probably why I go big now. Not because I feel I missed out on anything--or not just because of that--but because I remember how happy looking at all the decorations made me as a child.

I have the very largest tree my living room can hold and I am continually buying and making ornaments to go on them. At first glance, it seems ostentatious--an obnoxious overstatement of the holiday--and it has been suggested to me by "friends" that maybe I don't need such a large tree.

But I like it. And I like all the ornaments on it. It's not an ego thing. It's not a bid for attention. It's really more of a way for me to remember the previous holidays and celebrate the ones to come.

More on this later...