December 10, 2019

Giving In (Christmas Decor 2019)

We have an every-other-year philosophy about Christmas decorations: one year I get my pretty, matchy-matchy decor, and the next we do what I call “Kid Christmas” (i.e. all the cheesy, colorful fun stuff).

And then I went and got the clean-out itch.

I feel like I am constantly cleaning out things around the house (it’s funny how it never feels like I make a dent, haha!), and a few months ago I attacked my holiday decor. The rules were that I either had to love it or it had to evoke major nostalgia for me (or my kids) to be a keeper. Needless to say, I got rid of a few bins worth of stuff that had been just kinda’ hanging around from year to year. It felt good to have the extra shelf space open (especially since my two sets of alternating Christmas decor take up a lot of room) and I was happy–and even more so when I realized that it was a matchy-matchy decor year! (Yay!)

What I failed to realize is that my girls are finally old enough to remember last year’s decor, and thus what’s missing from this year’s decor.

And I felt bad.

So I did a rash and silly thing and bought a second tree. Sigh. (So much for that extra shelf space, haha!)

I’ve always had a place in my heart for flocked trees because that’s what we had growing up, and since they’re trendy this year, how could I resist?

I had already grouped together my family Christmas things–Great Grandma Vance’s ornaments, an article on my mother from Christmas 1982, my mom’s obnoxious tin bells, some little things of mine that have survived from my childhood–so I threw up our new, flocked pine in there as well and let the girls have at it.

(Let me just say it was so FREEING to not care about how they decorated that tree! I’m usually the mom who pretends to be cool with uneven and misplaced ornaments but then secretly comes back at night to rearrange them. Eek!)

And you know what? I love it! The girls have spent so much time looking at each and every ornament, exclaiming hilarious things like, “WHOA! I made this all the way back in 2015?!?” (And I have been able to admire my pretty tree, too!) It’s been such a great compromise for us this year.

(But let’s see how I feel once it’s time to pack that second tree up and store it for the next year, haha!)

PORCH

(complete with a cute puppy + a sign-up list tacked to the door while the girls recruit for their band, haha!)