A fun Christmas tradition that takes on many different forms and is completed in many different ways is . . . decorating!Decorations lend a feeling of celebration to the season, and they can be so much fun to put up! Take, for example, my dorm room this last year at college. My roommate and I had a great time tacking a garland above the window, putting lights and little figurines around the room, and adding general merriment to our living space. (See picture above.) My parents sent decorations for practically every holiday, so our dorm room tended to be quite festive throughout the year!
And I just love how my mom decorates our home for Christmas! Inside and out, it is a beautiful sight! From our four stockings (and one for the cat, too!) hanging in the living room, to the gorgeous Christmas tree, to little scenes set up on tables and cabinets . . . our home is always decked out for the holidays.
Now, my uncle and my grandparents go all out, too. My uncle sets up the outside of the house like something right out of Christmas Vacation (well, almost!), and my grandma sets up the inside as a cozy haven for our family, with lots of miniatures, including a Dickens village over the fireplace!
Decorations help us set apart holidays and special occasions from day to day life. Just seeing any kind of decorations gives us a thrill because we know that something out of the ordinary is occurring. Decorations are so much fun!
But even though there are certain days set apart from others, when we are saved by the Lord, we have so much to celebrate every day! How blessed we are!
As we celebrate this day God has given us, let's talk about some of our favorite Christmas decorations! Would anybody like to share some Christmas decorating memories, as well?
(And if you would like to be entered in the Christmas giveaway this week, make sure to leave a comment on yesterday's post first! Thanks!)
14 comments:
I look forward to decorating every year. I always want to start early, but my husband won't let me until the day after Thankgiving. :) This year with a little boy who loves danger, I think the decorating will be a little less than normal. The tree is always my favorite. We have this huge tree that takes up way too much room in our little house. I think I'm just going to get a small one this year. And put it somewhere less likely to be destroyed! :) I love the trees with homemade ornaments!!!
We always have a stocking for our dog, too. He gets more presents than he needs every year. Even the grandparents get him something!
Bluerose,
Decorating is so much fun, isn't it? ;) And that's funny about your husband not letting you start until after Thanksgiving. It reminds me of a cartoon my family cut out of the newspaper sometime, and it showed some pilgrims, one with a gun, confronting Santa. One of the pilgrims asks, "Who are you, and what are you doing here before Thanksgiving?" ;) I thought it was hilarious!
Anyway, I can definitely see how having a younger child around the house would change your plans a bit. ;) But I hope it will still be a lot of fun for you! And I think it's great having a stocking for pets, too! :D It just adds to the overall festiveness, in my opinion.
And Christmas trees are wonderful! Without giving too much away, the Christmas tree might just have its own post in the near future... ;)
Thanks for stopping by!
~Amber
My favorite part is decorating the tree :) We have tons of Disney character ornaments, and they're all so cute!
@Bluerose, Putting a gate around the tree or putting it in the Pack & Play helps! Our trees look so funny now because the kids decorate it and so everything is 2 feet up and below, but we like to keep it that way. We learned the hard way not to put up the "special" ornaments at this season.
@Amber, Thanks for helping us think of my favorite time of year. I noticed your recommendation for ML Tyndall. I keep hearing about her books. I notice FIRST is reading Surrender the Heart in October. Is that a standalone book do you know, if not I'd like to try to read the others before then.
Looks so pretty for a dorm room, especially the view. My dorm had a good view of the garbage dump. Ah, the memories...
Oh my goodness the view from your dorm room is fabulous!!!! I'd be gazing out the window thinking up stories instead of studying.
My absolutely favourite decoration to put up is my wooden nativity set. It was made by a priest and the proceeds went to a mission serving the homeless. I like that piece of history about it. I also like that it has teething marks from my dogs when they were puppies. Too funny -- I have shetland sheepdogs and they kept stealing the sheep!
ARIEL: Oh, yes, decorating the tree is a blast! We have lots of Hallmark ornaments (with many Disney ones among them, too!), so I can relate. :) Like I told Bluerose, we'll probably be discussing this in more detail soon!
JULIA: You're welcome! It's been lots of fun for me--I even got my family to watch Christmas Vacation with me last night! ;)
And Surrender the Heart is the first in a brand new series ("Surrender to Destiny" series), and the only stand-alone novel by her that I know of is The Falcon and the Sparrow. Like I told Laura, I recommend all of her books, and as long as you read the series in order, I don't think it matters too much where you begin. :) Hope you get to read some of her books soon--they're incredible!
As far as my dorm room, I loved it! I'm hoping to be on the same floor this next year, but I'll miss the view from that room pictured above for sure! So sorry you had to look at a garbage dump from your window. :(
KAV: Isn't it lovely? It was a great place to read, think, and nap in the sunshine when it came out. ;)
I love the story behind your nativity set! And that is funny about your sheepdogs stealing the sheep! Shouldn't they be herding them together and not taking them away? ;)
EVERYONE: Thank you for sharing! I enjoy reading your comments!
~Amber
LOL...I joke about it, but college were some of the greatest times...I met my husband the first week of school so we did fit the whole "ring by spring or your money back" joke.
JULIA: College is great, for sure! :) And that's so cute about you and your husband!!! Going to a Christian college, that phrase "ring by spring" really does become familiar. ;)
~Amber
I love Christmas decorations, especially the tree. I use an artificial tree, so I put it up just as early as I can in November. I usually don't turn the lights on until after Thanksgiving though. I have clear and purple lights on my tree. Many of my ornaments are gold and purple. As you can tell, purple is my favorite color. ;)
Then I have what I call my whimsical ornaments. They are "Peanuts," "Garfield," and "Marvin the Martian." In case you aren't familiar, Marvin is the little Martian from the Looney Tunes cartoons.
My tree skirt is also purple.
Then there's my mom's house! Her tree is on a rotating stand. It's so beautiful! There's one ornament in particular that is very special to me. It's a little triangle which has a very small Santa inside. The reason it is so special is my grandmother and I would "argue" over it every single year. My grandfather originally bought it for Mamaw, but I liked it so much it became mine. We used to "argue" about whose turn it was to have the ornament. My stepfather even tried to give it to my grandmother one year, but she wouldn't take it.
@Amber -That's exactly why both my husband and momma are persistent to wait til after Thankgiving. They feel like we're stealing the thunder from it.
@Julia-That's a good idea. We'll have to test different things out and see what works best. Since getting our dogs, we already swapped out all of our ornaments to shatterproof(at least the balls). We had to learn the hard way on that!
@Kav- Do you remember where you got your nativity set? (a website or individual) I have wanted a wooden set since I read the Christmas book of Jan Karon's. And I love that it helped the homeless!!
MICHELLE: We have an artificial tree, too, and it's always such a gorgeous sight! Your tree sounds lovely. :D I really like the color purple, as well!
I like your choice in "whimsical ornaments." My middle school English teacher loved Marvin the Martian! :)
That's sweet that you have a special ornament with a family memory to go with it!
Oh, and would you like to be entered in the giveaway this week? If so, just comment with your e-mail address on the first day of "Christmas in July." Thanks for stopping by!
BLUEROSE: I can understand that, but I can also understand being eager for Christmas! ;) Although there *might* be such a thing as over-eager, like in the Charlie Brown Easter episode, when there were Christmas sales and displays in the department stores around Easter time!!! Now THAT is a little TOO eager, in my opinion! ;)
~Amber
Amber, I wondered if that was a Roberts thing or every Christian college ;) Guess it worked for me though :)
Heee I love the stocking with the kitty! So cute!
Much to my mom's dismay I always have to decorate our tree with these little stuffed Christmas fruit from Del Monte fruit company that I got when I was like 5. Everytime my mom bugs me about them I say, "who bought them for me in the first place?" that silences her! LOL seriously though they'e so cute and I REALLY got her when I was at a flea market a few years back and found ANOTHER set of them! Of course you know I bought them! :-P
Ahhh the Christmas memories!
XOXO~ Renee
JULIA: Nope, I've definitely heard it at Corban and when I was visiting Multnomah University! ;) I'm glad it worked for you!!! Too sweet!
RENEE: Thank you! I confess it's actually my little stuffed panda bear (which is sooooo soft!), but we can pretend it's a kitty. ;) I love cats, and I actually brought this stuffed cat that looked almost real to school with me, and he sat on my window sill. You have no idea how many times somebody would come into my room and ask me if it was real! ;)
And that's such a funny story about the stuffed fruit! Your poor mom. ;) Christmas is definitely a wonderful time for making memories!
~Amber
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