I love the holidays. I love Halloween and the spooky décor we can only set out once per year unless we want the neighbors to really worry about us. I love the outdoor decorations that lend an eerie air to everything. I love seeing everyone dressed up in costumes, especially the children as they go door-to-door, having an amazing time as they trick-or-treat. Okay, I’ll confess. I love the leftover candy, too. I generally will spend more on candy just to make sure what’s left over is something I’d actually enjoy. It’s one of my annual splurges.
I love Thanksgiving. I love the sense of family that pervades everything. I love being together with loved ones, celebrating all the year has blessed us with. I love the food, especially when my husband cooks. No, not because I don’t have to. It’s simply that he’s an amazing cook and is far more skilled with a turkey or a ham than I am. Okay, so cooking isn’t my favorite thing to do with my time. I’d rather be writing.
I love singing Christmas Carols and can sometimes drive my husband crazy playing them during December. I love decorating the house, especially getting out some of the decorations which used to belong to my grandparents and hanging them on the tree. I love Christmas trees, and fondly remember growing up in the woods and cutting our own trees each year, then hand stringing real cranberries and popcorn to use as garland. After the holidays were over, we put the tree out in the yard, so the birds could have a holiday meal on the popcorn and cranberries.
What I don’t enjoy about the holidays is the cleanup afterward. Decorate for Halloween with black and orange, witches and goblins, ghosts and skeletons. String fake spider webs and find that sound track of creepy sounds. The moment October is done, we have to rush to put this away to make room for Thanksgiving décor.
Now it’s a rush to put up autumn leaf motifs, the hand silhouette turkey your kids made in second grade, the gold and rust colored table runners and placemats and the “I am thankful for” plaques scattered through the house. After the big day of my husband cooking all day and me cleaning up all night, it’s time to pack it all away again until next year.
Finally, we come to Christmas. Dig out the artificial tree, since it’s less likely to be seen as indoor plumbing for our four rescue dogs. Assess which items for the tree are not breakable and wouldn’t hurt a dog if one chose to make a chew toy out of it. Decorate the tree. Set out stocking hangers. String garland across doorways. Put lights up outside. Set out the advent calendar and the ceramic nativity set my grandmother hand painted for me many years ago. As before, once the holiday is over, it’s time to put it all back in boxes, often more time consuming than getting it all out.
Even discussing all the unpacking, decorating and repacking wears me out, so this year, I think I may rebel. I see no reason to decorate for three separate holidays. Why not have Hallo-giving-mas decorations that can go up in early October and stay there until the new year rolls around?
I can see it now. Placemats with black borders, leaf patterned inner borders and red and green centers. A tree decorated with witches, goblins, acorns, turkeys, snowflakes and red sparkly balls. Garland which is a blend of red, green, black, orange, rust and gold. Maybe it would look like a variegated yarn, which swaps colors periodically.
With stores cooperating so nicely by putting out Christmas decorations before October gets a good start, I think it might be possible. Sure, I might get a few weird looks from passersby. My neighbors might get bored with the same old decorations for an entire quarter of the year. But I can spice it up by getting outdoor speakers and playing creepy music and sounds during October, music about family and loved ones in November, and of course, all the beloved Christmas carols I can think of during the month of December. I’m sure this will help them know which season I’m recognizing, while saving a ton of time.
Before all the best decorations are gone, I may head to the store to load up on things I can cobble together to create my Hallo-giving-mas decorations. Who knows? I could start a trend of other busy people who enjoy holiday decorations but simply don’t have the time to redecorate every 30 days. I might become famous for my creation of a giant Santa wearing a pointy black hat, riding a broom pulled by a team of eight tiny turkeys with Rudolph out front.
Or maybe I’ll just resign myself to the inevitable changing of holidays which happens too quickly at the end of each year, joining the masses in creating the perfect look each month. Time will tell.
