On Decking the Halls

Since Thanksgiving weekend, I have been on a mission to deck my halls for the Christmas season which is now in full swing. I really would prefer to put up my Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving because Thanksgiving is a busy holiday unto itself, and as a purist, I don't like to let Christmas infringe on my Thanksgiving holiday. I really believe it is important to let Thanksgiving be Thanksgiving, and only Thanksgiving, because it is so important, to me, that the day of thankfulness and harvest blessings be honored on its own merits with the emphasis on expressions of thankfulness to our Creator, as well as in remembrance of the pilgrims who held the first Thanksgiving feast with the Indians who helped them survive that brutal first year, here, in the new land. I like the Christmas season too, but I don't like the commercial aspect of the Christmas holiday with it's encroachment on Thanksgiving nowadays.

I can remember when stores were closed on Thanksgiving, then the push for marketing Black Friday became the norm, and eventually some stores opted to be open on the Thanksgiving holiday, itself, with promises of fantastic deals to entice people away from their Thanksgiving celebrations in order to buy the perfect Christmas gifts at unheard of prices. Granted, merchants couldn't do this without the cooperation of the consumer, and in all reality, the diminished significance of the place for Thanksgiving in the hearts and homes of Americans, today, while the push to start the Christmas spending frenzy as soon as possible, really speaks to the values of the nation and shows what is important to its people. I can't help but think of the following scripture: "for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." [Matthew 6:21] We give our attention to those things which are most important and valued by us.

But getting back to the matter of decking the halls in anticipation of the Christmas celebration, because of my conviction that Thanksgiving should be honored as a standalone holiday, I do not even begin to put away the harvest, autumn, and Thanksgiving decorations until after Thanksgiving. However, at the behest of my children, I do so immediately after Thanksgiving! They would have the tree up on Black Friday, if they had a choice, and we try, but it doesn't always work out. The Christmas tree is usually up Thanksgiving weekend though. Other decorations follow, in the process of decking the halls, in the remaining weeks leading up to Christmas. It is a challenge because in addition to all of the usual things I feel like I barely have time to do in a given day or week, I am embarking on a major temporary redecorating project that has to be squeezed into the schedule of routine things that must be done, and all of the chaos associated with hauling out decorations only adds to the routine upkeep of the home and inhibits the usual process, which I already mentioned I find difficult to keep up with in an ordinary day or week. I was thinking about this last night, and I came to the conclusion that there is a certain insanity to this. This year I've been seriously considering multiplying the insanity by putting up a second Christmas tree, however. We used to do this a few years back, but we haven't done so in about 4 years. I'm thinking I'd like to have the second tree this year though.

This year, for the first time in a number of years, we actually put colored lights on our main large Christmas tree. It just seemed like it was time. I really like the clear lights too, and they do such a nice job of illuminating your ornaments at night, but we missed the colored lights. I think we have a certain sense of nostalgia for the past when our kids were little, and we only used colored lights on our tree. I think our kids were feeling some of that same nostalgia for the paradise of their childhoods and the magic of Christmas. My oldest son has even been quite vocal about how Christmas is about colored lights. I made the mistake of asking what he thought about our Christmas trees over the last few years that were adorned with clear lights, and I was tersely informed that he essentially tolerated those Christmas trees, but they did not say, "Christmas," to him. Having put up a tree with colored lights though, I still found myself missing the clear lights on a Christmas tree. If all goes well, I will have a second tree with clear lights up by this afternoon. THEN I can see about getting all of the boxes of ornaments and tinsel that are occupying valuable real estate in my great room and dining room put back in the basement where they belong and focus on enjoying the rest of the Christmas season!