In our house it is either Christmas Day or Christmas is coming.
I know somebody who year-after-year starts her Christmas decorating not much past Labor Day. Up around the corner from us is an exterior lighting display that costs thousands to install every year. It goes up right after Thanksgiving and it’s not lights-off till February. Daughter, Tracy, had a babysitter in California whose family never took down their Christmas tree. I see nothing wrong with any of these scenarios. After all, Christmas is always on the horizon. Even in January.
This year, we celebrated our 62nd Christmas together. Over the years, we have collected just a few ornaments and other holiday mementos. Nothing too much. I believe we have exercised incredible discipline by not cluttering our basement storage area with too much stuff we don’t use. As long as everything fit in the storage area we were good, right?
Not long ago, I reported on an excursion we made to Bronner’s in Frankenmuth, Michigan, the self-proclaimed largest Christmas store in the world - over two million square feet of Christmas wonders - all for sale. NFL ornaments for every team. Personalized ornaments with your name. Artificial trees and an unlimited selection of items to put on those trees.
We told ourselves our goal for this trip was to have lunch in the quaint German-influenced town, but we couldn’t resist sticking our head into Bronner’s. We weren't shopping. We were just looking. But while we looked, I confess, we did make several purchases. Not that we needed anything more, but it’s always good to have choices.
So, armed with a few new items and hundreds (ok, thousands) of old ones, we shared our annual over-the-top holiday spectacle with family and friends. It was beautiful and I loved every minute of it until.....
.....until it was time to take it all down and put it away until next year. What a mess. Stuff everywhere. Maybe that California babysitter and her family DID have the right idea.
But, this year, we made a joint decision to see what we could get rid of before it was lights-off on another holiday. Time for even more holiday discipline. So it was that we gave away several boxes of decorations we realized we were no longer using and didn’t think we would use again anytime soon.
Today, we are better organized for the next holiday season than we have ever been before. I am very pleased to let my blog readers know that everything is now packed up and neatly put away in our basement storage area. All 33 remaining cartons, plus various individual items that are stand-alone.
We have learned a good lesson this year that we would like to share with readers. Go through your holiday decorations at least once every 62 years. Force yourself to get rid of what you don’t use. While you’re doing that, keep an eye out for decorations you think we might like. We’ll be right over to check them out.
DY: In Just a Few Words is a blog that comes out when something needs to be said or every Tuesday - whichever comes first. Davis Young is a communications professional who adds 50+ years of experience and perspective to issues of the day. His emphasis in DY: In Just a Few Words will be humor (a touch of sarcasm here, a pinch of facetiousness there...). Once in a while, he will touch on something a bit more serious - but hopefully not too deep or depressing.
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