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September 2nd, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Price: $9.95 USD

Christmas Begins and Ends in the Attic

Christmas is my favourite holiday and my favourite time of year. As soon as the radio stations begin cranking out the old evergreen Christmas numbers, I am in the attic picking through the assortment of dusty Christmas decorations, pausing now and then to relive precious moments from the year before. There are plenty of boxes of stuff to wade through. It takes a few hours but I get those decorations scattered all over the house. A few weeks later and I’m back in the attic again, packing the delicate survivors into their tissue wrappings to hibernate until next year.

My wife hates the moment I charge up to the attic, taking the steps two at a time, because she knows she’ll most likely be recruited to do some tedious decorating or else be abandoned to look after everything I’ve dropped in my mad rush to start XMAS DECORATING. She often escapes to visit a friend, and if I’m lucky she’ll take the kids with her. Then I’m alone, and as I prise one of last year’s fragile silver angels out of it’s box, I feel close to heaven.

A Good Way to Illuminate your House (while your partner is in the attic)

Last year, I handed her a box of Christmas lights and asked her to decorate the outside bushes and porch. She looked a bit relieved to be getting out of the house. Later she admitted that I might as well have handed her a bucket of mud and asked her to clean the windows. But she’s a clever and resourceful woman. One phone call, unbeknown to me, and the whole house was illuminated by nightfall.

The Spirit of Christmas

Over the years, I’ve collected many Christmas decorations that belonged to grandparents or other relatives. The kids have chewed/snapped/mislaid/fed the cat with some of them over the years, but I still have a sizeable working collection left. I’ve purchased antique Christmas decorations as well, often on E-bay. I like to think that the previous owner it gets to pass on some of their Christmas spirit when I display those once cherished Christmas decorations. My grandmother used to love Christmas. She would decorate her entire house, inside and outside, and had some of the most beautiful pieces. Once she passed away, I inherited them, and they still form the core of my collection of antique Christmas decorations. I make sure that I display some of her favourites every year.

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The Magic of Christmas

I put my Christmas decorations up right after Thanksgiving and display them until New Year’s Day. The holiday season is such a wonderful time of the year and the decorations only enhance its happiness and joy in my family. We make a big point of decorating the tree as a family and putting the stockings out. While my children no longer believe in Santa, the magic of Christmas still exists. Their stockings are one of the first things they rummage for when the boxes of Christmas decorations are brought down from the attic

Christmas Berserkers at the Mall

Once the holiday season has officially arrived, trips to the mall can resemble Viking raids. Many shoppers don’t even bother to pay attention to the time and effort that people spent decorating, but I do. I try to not get upset when the stores are more crowded and people aren’t being as polite as they normally are. I take the time to admire the Christmas decorations and enjoy the hustle and bustle of life around me.

Next time you are standing in a queue, arms full of gifts, wishing the person in front of you would hurry up or be dragged off by Christmas gnomes, take some time to glance around. Admire the beauty of the season. It’s not all about shopping, you know. There are still those who want to express their inner joy at being alive, and Christmas fills them with the inspiration to do just that. Perhaps this is what we mean by Christmas spirit.

(You are welcome to use this article on your web-site or blog as long as the resource box and the links it contains remain intact.)

Eoin Beckett is a freelance author and editor. Although he stems from Ireland, he currently lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. Read more about Christmas Decorations at Juletide - the ancient and magical word for Christmas.

Christmas Decoration: An Overview

September 2nd, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

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Christmas Decoration in the Basement

My brother’s wife groans when he asks her to drag out the Christmas decorations every year. And she has good reason. Their decorations are ‘chucked’ rather than stored. They have two small children, so by the time Christmas is over they are exhausted. You can see this if you push open the creaky door into their basement, turn on the light and peer into the dusty yellow glow. You can imagine my brother and his wife tearing down their Xmas decorations, stuffing them into cardboard boxes and throwing them into the basement from the top of the stairs, letting out a huge sigh of relief as they slam the door shut and scurry back to the open embrace of the sofa. Each Christmas decoration ends up concealed behind summer items, such as garden furniture that has been brought in for the winter months, so my brother usually has to set aside an entire day for his seek and drag-everything-up-to-the-ground-floor mission.

Boxes Full of Decoration

His wife loves Christmas decorations, as much as he hates Christmas decorating, which doesn’t help the situation. They have boxes and boxes full, and they’ve only had their own place to decorate for about four years. I really don’t know where all of their decorations came from. He inherited some of my grandmother’s Christmas decorations, which of course are his most cherished. They may not be the most beautiful or valuable antique Xmas decorations, but they hold special meaning and many childhood memories so they are displayed most prominently. Then there are the decorations that my mother purchased for us, or that his wife’s mother purchased, or that friends and extended family purchased. They have a huge amount of Xmas decorations, and despite the furore of retrieving them from the basement they are always tastefully displayed.

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An Argument for Storing Christmas Decorations all Year Round (including Christmas)

Now, my mother-in-law’s house looks like Santa went amok with his prototype toy and Xmas décor machine every time Christmas rolls around. She is a total arts and crafts nut, so she has countless Christmas decorations scattered liberally around the house. I don’t think there is one inch in that house that is not covered in red, green or gold during the holiday season. There are knitted tissue box covers, toilet seat covers, wall hangings, quilts; you name it and it is there. So many contmeporary and antique Christmas decorations that you can’t even distinguish where one ends and where another begins. But she loves them, and we never have to stay there very long when we visit, so I suppose that is all that matters.

An Uneasy Marriage

Then there is my family. There are hardly any decorations because they clutter the house, and they have even started using an artificial tree for the last three years, which they leave tastefully bare. There are a few poinsettias, a few smatterings of gold bows and green wreaths but nowhere near the volcanic eruption of my mother-in-law’s home. I suppose I would say that the home my wife and I have created is an uneasy marriage of both of our backgrounds, both of our styles. As long as my grandmother’s antique Christmas decorations have pride of place, I don’t think I’d have it any other way.

(You are welcome to use this article on your web-site or blog as long as the resource box and the links it contains remain intact.)

Eoin Beckett is a freelance author and editor. Although he stems from Ireland, he currently lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. Read more about Christmas Decorating Ideas at Juletide - the ancient and magical word for Christmas.

Copyright © 2007 Jule Tide

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