Gosh, it is less than a week until Christmas. I know I am not fully ready, maybe you aren’t either, but we will get there.
This Christmas is better/worse for me than the last few years. Without boring details, I have had some serious upheavals over the holidays during the last few years that had left me without my usual holiday spirit.
Growing up, I was the one that did the decorating. I was the Weber house Christmas elf. I loved all of it. The old-fashioned lit-up plastic Santa that I hung outside of our front door, the ubiquitous large bulb-colored lights…all of it. My sister and I had a tradition of sleeping under the Christmas tree the first night after it was decorated. Much like Buddy the Elf, Christmas was my favorite!
Fast forward to when I am an adult and have my kids…I had to have the HUGEST REAL Christmas tree. One year it was so big that it kept falling over and we had to bolt it into the wall. Yes, I am serious. However, I didn’t do that again because I lost a ton of my breakable decorations and I was salty about that situation. That being said, I was a stalwart champion of the authentic REAL Christmas tree for years. When my girls were still younger it was so much fun to wander the Christmas tree farm and watch them run and throw snowballs in our hunt for the “perfect tree”.
Well, kids do this thing…they grow up. They didn’t want to do the tree hunt (or didn’t have time) and I was left to my own devices or we would make a quick stop at a local tree seller of already cut trees. Last year was our last “real tree” year. I hit the wall when I had to drag that dead-ass tree out by myself and I was cleaning needles until June. Additionally, I had some personal and health setbacks that made it difficult for me to feel the joy of the season. I succumbed to the malaise…not my typical style, but there you have it.
So, this is our first year with an artificial tree. But the tree doesn’t define how we spend our holiday and I decided to get my elfish spirit back on in 2023! I had my now adult daughters (22 and 19) over for a good old-fashioned Christmas Tree Trimming Party. I made appetizers, blasted the Christmas tunes, got a good wood fire going, and decorated.
Our tree is not a “staged tree”. We don’t have a color palette or a “style”. It is all of the decorations collected since I was an adult on my own, including the fan favorites: the elementary school handmade decorations made with love by my girls. There is a lot of, “Wait, whose is this one?”, “Oh…do you remember making this?”, and “Awww how cute!”. It is a walk down memory lane as we decorate and reminisce about where the ornaments came from and spend some special family time together. I think that makes it the most lovely thing I have ever seen.
Our family is not a traditional one, but we have our traditions and I love them. I am so glad I was able to come out of whatever was keeping my Christmas Elf down and enjoy this time with my adult daughters. It will be our first Christmas without my mom, but I know she was in the room during the tree trimming and I feel her all around.
To you and yours, I wish you the merriest of the holiday seasons and all of the best going into the New Year. I feel blessed and I wish the same for you and yours!
Merry Christmas to you