Traditions: Decorations

In so many ways, the decorations we put up at Christmas are not entirely traditional. For one, this will be my 33rd Christmas....33 years and seven other siblings later there are some memorable decorations no longer around. For instance, the nativity scene I first remember has long been broken to pieces and thrown away...

I was thinking the other day that I don't even remember putting up lights on the house until I was well into my teens...or even twenties. Today I consider that a tradition, to put up lights before December arrives so you won't freeze to death and take them down after Easter when they're no longer frozen to the house. But, apparently, that fun is just over a decade old.

So is one of my favorite decorations to put up: my Christmas village. I always wanted a Christmas village. So, not quite ten years ago my sisters got together, purchased pieces to a ceramic village and painted each piece themselves. The next two years following, I got a few more pieces, lovingly painted by my sisters. Each is marked at the bottom with their name, and the whole thing is very special to me. These past several years I have put it up at Thanksgiving so I can enjoy it a few days then and again when I arrive home for Christmas. Just this year I was thinking I need to purchase a train to run around it...maybe next year. :)

Of course, there are my ornaments. Most of these are more than twenty years old, some more than thirty. And each became special in their own way. I love pulling them out of their boxes and hanging them up, remembering who gave them to me and the occasion. My Christmas ornaments are like a living picture book...

Every year, we put up a live tree. I can't imagine my family will ever put up a fake one. We hang our stockings....sometimes by a fire with care but that depends on the house we're living in. The one in Indiana does not have a fireplace, so they are placed on the staircase with care. Mom made each of our stockings (too large, she says, for they are hard to fill) and we all love the uniqueness of each of them. (I even have fabric in the attic for the stockings Mom will make my children.) When I was in elementary school, Mom had someone make ceramic stocking holders we used for years and years. Some are still around, but in the last few years she has purchased each of us our own, as unique as our stockings.

There is greenery, but Katey (the one who loves to decorate) started that about ten or less years ago, and while I think it is lovely and enjoy having it out have never put it out myself. And then Mom decorates her pineapple plant...another in-the-last-decade tradition...and a story I won't detail here. But I do look for it when I go home. :)