That has been my approach to Christmas decorating. When Winter nights are long it only makes sense to light everything and cover all surfaces with red and green. It must be my attempt to ward off the winter blahs.
Decorating was a tradition when I was growing up though nothing went up until after my brother's birthday on the 21st. Santa brought the tree on Christmas Eve and it was always beautiful and special. Santa (aka my father) always created a Christmas village under the tree with a train. The year of the fairies and angels coming down out of the tree and into the village was my favorite. Some of them are still in our tree. The decorations on the mantel and around the house were always real greenery and the neighbors would always come to our house to admire my Dad's work. Whether we were in Virginia, Japan, Okinawa, Ohio, Georgia, or North Carolina there were always magical decorations.
Pat and I started putting up our decorations the day after Thanksgiving the year we went to New York on the first weekend in December for the lighting of the Rockefeller Tree. We knew we did not have time to get everything up if we did not do it early so...a tradition was started. It is always nice to pull out the things that have been around forever like the Santa that my parents got in Japan. He has been out every Christmas since 1961 and memories always flash through my head when I pull him out of the box he has been in forever wrapped in a piece of the Richmond Times Dispatch from 1970. When all the "regular stuff" is put away and the house becomes Christmas it's as if we have moved. Then it is always nice to put it all away, clean and get everything back to "normal". It's a new beginning.
Peace on Earth, goodwill to all. (not just men).
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