“Mommy, when are we putting up the Christmas tree?”
Answer: “Um, next year?”
Because we spent the first week of December in California and will be spending Christmas week with our family in Calgary it hardly seems worthwhile to put up a tree for a mere 2 weeks. Or maybe I’m just feeling particularly lazy… Nevertheless I’ve been dreading the day when one of the children would utter these words. Truthfully, I haven’t been in the spirit so I was more than willing to let the Christmas Tree tradition slide for the first time. But they weren’t going to let me get away without any decorations!
Saturday morning, we pulled out boxes from the basement and garage. I admit to feeling a pang as I sorted through my favourite ornaments, but that was quickly replaced by the excitement of using our decorations in a different way. As always, we hung our stockings with care.
As with any Christmas decorating with children, the kids were totally over excited and questionably helpful. I brought out a small artificial table top tree for them to decorate, but they quickly lost interest.
However, I was pretty happy with the results: we concentrated on the family room where we spend most of our time, but made sure to bring some cheer to the Living Room/Dining room too. In the family room, our mantle is the focal point heaped with bells, Nutcrackers and a sparkly garland. I used the magic of fishing line to emulate snowflakes floating in the window and hanging out beneath the TV keeping an eye on things is a small Santa and sleigh.
In the Living room, candles warm things up, a pretty wreath in the window and an angel watches over our nativity which sits next to some of the children’s Christmas art.
It may not have the same wow factor as a decked out tree, but its brought some much needed cheer into our home! How much do you decorate for Christmas if you travel during December?
