DECORATING FOR CHRISTMAS
I used to go all out in the decoration department. ‘All out’
involved getting ready for Christmas by what you did. So when my daughter was
little, I crocheted about twenty five snowflakes that decorated our tree for
years.
My personal favorite was the ‘Jesus Set’ my daughter punched
out and set up for several years. It was fun to read the Christmas story, punch
out the cardboard figures, and set them up on the window sill.
I won’t argue that those were the good old days, but I will
stand up for our traditions. We had a bunch of them. We painted wooden
ornaments with my sisters in law. We baked those plastic ornaments that filled
your kitchen with the toxic smell and made your eyes burn. We painted cork
ornaments one year. We made the flour dough ornaments and painted them one
year. All of this activity was to make the point that it was what you did to
get ready for Christmas, not what you bought that made Christmas preparations
special and meaningful.
When my daughter was about ten years old, she looked at me
and said, “This year I want a ‘Jesus Set’ you don’t punch out.” So the
tradition of the cardboard ‘Jesus Set’ you punched out bit the dust.
When my daughter married and left home, I sent all of the
ornaments with her from her childhood. When she left home, my son was two and
we created a whole new set of traditions. I have since passed onto his wife
most of the ornaments we made while he was growing up. My grandchildren are
busy creating now their own traditions. I say Merry Christmas and carry on.
Thank you, Mary, for sharing your memories of when we were more likely to "make Christmas happen" than to purchase items as we prepared to celebrate what the "Jesus set" is all about. I liked the picture of your Jesus set, too, because I've collected nativities for years...and try to resist purchasing them anymore because I have about a hundred of varying sizes, including some that are 'homemade'. Sounds like you were a good family enjoying Christmas and I'm glad you shared your memories with us. Merry Christmas.
ReplyDeleteTraditions are wonderful. Even though 'what you do for Christmas' is important, our tradition of getting up early to see what Santa brought was fun, also. Of course someone had to shop and I loved last minute shopping. Really, I did. I already had most of their 'list' stuff and would go out to see what bargains I could get to delight them as a surprise. Thanks for stirring up those memories.
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