Christmas is coming, I can feel it in the air. Of course, the malls are all showing signs that "tis the season", but up until this weekend, I just wasn't truly feelin' it. The thought of decorating my house indoors and out felt overwhelming, and after checking my trusty holiday "planner/binder", I realized...with a start...that I had bought only one gift so far for my eldest son. This after bragging that I was "almost done" shopping for the kids! Oyy!! So, for all my planning, I was actually quite far behind from where I thought I was...photo above: www.marthastewart.com
Well, one of the roadblocks to catching that festive spirit was allayed by the annual Christmas home tour put on by a local church. There is nothing like seeing beautiful homes all prettied up for the holidays to get you in the mood to decorate! Two of the homes were lovely older homes decorated in a country Christmas style...very cozy and welcoming. Sometimes I find myself wishing I had a darker colour scheme in my home to support such a holiday style. My house lends itself to a lighter scheme...think snow, white lights, watery blue and silver...more of an icy palette. Thing is: I love both, but the cozier style feels more like a traditional Christmas to me. The kind of home where plaid meets birchbark meets pine boughs and winterberries. Beautiful, but just not meant for my home...sigh...!
photo source: www.roomservicehome.com
After a nice sit down lunch (tea or coffee, sandwiches and sweets) at the church hall, I was feeling that Christmas decorating feeling! Not enough to make me tackle the many boxes of inside decorations, but I did manage to get Sophie's pink tinsel tree set up for her to decorate. It will be her new nightlight of sorts, and I still have fond memories of staring at my own little scraggly tree set up in my childhood bedroom as I drifted off to sleep. If you don't have a tree for each child in their rooms, you should really consider getting one. I picked up two little pink table top trees for a friend's girls at Walmart for 99 cents each!! Add some little decorations from the Dollar Store and a homemade paper chain that they make themselves and it is a cheap and easy decoration...sure to give them that excited feeling in their bellies all throughout the holiday season!!
Sure enough, I started to notice some people slowly starting to put their outside decorations up this weekend. The weather was fairly mild, so I, too, succumbed...and
dragged out the boxes from my garage and set to work. I have decided to go a little simpler on the outside this year and left some decorations in their boxes. In my opinion, there is a fine line you can cross between just enough and too much...and I have crossed that line myself I am sure. There is something about wanting to use all that you have so as not to be wasteful, but I have to remember that I have moved house a fair bit, and lately have been gravitating towards a more simplistic style. Natural, old-fashioned, and just enough sparkle. I will post pictures of the end result after I get my real boughs and outside tree. I've put dear hubby on the case, but he always seems to take his good old time doing so. Or maybe I just have too much of a "get it done yesterday" sort of mindset. Yep, that is probably more like it...!!!So, now that I have gotten a start on some of my holiday decorating, I had better get at that shopping list. It is my yearly goal to have all my major shopping finished by November 30th. That way, I don't have to be around cranky, pushy, stressed out people ...who tend to zap all my Christmas spirit. I'm telling you, it is a good strategy...then you can just go and shop for stocking stuffers at your leisure and save time for the fun stuff, like decorating, holiday baking (if you consider that fun...), and getting a head start on wrapping those gifts. But you'd better hurry...only four more days till that deadline is here. Then again, who needs deadlines?? If you thrive on the hustle and bustle, then fill your boots!! What do I know??!!
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