I’m a Christmas person. Every year I cry at Love Actually, spend forever finding the perfect gifts, and find each and every reason we can to go and visit Santa. But in one regard, I am always a complete Scrooge: I hate decorating for the holidays. And, if Pinterest is any indication, I worry I might be the only one.
This isn’t just Christmas. Easter, Halloween – you name it, I don’t have a front door wreath for it. Every time my husband and I drove by Strader’s this September, I’d casually remark, “Next time we drive by, I want to pick up those corn stalks to put out front.” And now it’s October and the moment has passed.
Maybe it’s the penny pincher in me, but I struggle to spend a lot on decorations that spend 90% of the time in storage. For awhile my strategy was to buy everything I could find on clearance on December 26th, but then the following year I’d unwrap all of the decorations and wonder what my strategy was. Was this quaint wooden nativity scene supposed to go in the living room next to the modern metal reindeer? It never looked right together. It made decorating for the holidays weirdly stressful.
And yet. I’d visit friends and see the pictures in the Pottery Barn catalog and wish my house looked like that.
Last year was our baby’s first Christmas so I decided to step up my game. I hung garland along the windows, got rid of any old decorations that didn’t spark joy, and tried to make the house a home for the holidays.
It sort-of worked. Our living room, at least, felt like Christmas. I don’t think we ever hung up any Christmas lights outside. But at least it was something.
Now it’s October and I’m starting to feel it again, the itch as the Holidays approach. I never did get a single darn decoration for Halloween and I’m certainly not ready for Thanksgiving.
But maybe for Christmas I’ll try again. Thank goodness there’s at least always a tree.
