This weekend, as I put away the holiday decor, I had an aha moment.
Most of my adult life, to my children’s’ dismay, I have been a holiday decor Scrooge. My excuse has been “Design is my career - it doesn’t bring me joy to decorate and then un-decorate, only to do it all again next year.” But after some casual conversations with colleagues, I realized that my argument didn’t really hold water. Many of them love to decorate for the holidays.
Then today it hit me (and embarrassingly, since I’m 55 years old and have been doing this awhile, it’s ridiculous that it just hit me) - it’s not that I don’t like Christmas décor, I just hate cheap, fake holiday decor! I’ve been trying to decorate each year with the same dumb stuff I bought years ago from Hobby Lobby! It never occurred to me to invest in better items, because I thought the whole experience was lost on me.
And thinking back I recall that one year it was actually kinda fun. I didn’t feel like digging out the boxes from the attic and so I bought real garland from Trader Joe’s (it smelled SO good) and a real magnolia wreath from a local florist that prompted my husband to say ‘You spent how much on that? Isn’t it going to die in a few weeks?’. He was right, but I realize now how much pleasure it gave me each time I came home.
THE LESSON
People say it often, so it sounds cliché, but for some reason now it resonates: surround yourself with things you love; things that speak to you. Get out of auto-pilot and re-examine your surroundings and behaviors…
And today I made a decision. I’m not keeping items I hate. No more wrestling with lights that don’t work, or digging through boxes to find nutcrackers that make me cringe. I’m making a pile of holiday decor to donate so someone can enjoy it, and it’s not going back into the dark depths of the storage closet. Anything that is special and makes me smile will be saved, and from now on I’m buying real garland and magnolia wreaths.
I almost can’t wait until next year!