"I must stop this whole thing! Why, for fifty-three years I've put up with it now. I must stop Christmas from coming... but how?"
I usually have a hard and fast rule that nothing Christmas-related goes up in our house until after Thanksgiving. Which isn't to say that I don't love Christmas but I want every holiday to have its time in the spotlight and cringe when I hear stores playing Christmas music the day after Halloween. I do tend to drag the Christmas tree and ornaments out of storage the very day after Thanksgiving so it's not as if I'm not eager to deck the halls. Although in our case there are fewer boughs of holly and more skulls and purse-carrying sharks in hula skirts adorning our tree. Can you believe this beauty was still available at Target in the post-Christmas sales last year? What a lucky find!
However, as a crafter and someone who plans to make homemade gifts and decorations this year I know that time's a-ticking and now's the time to get started. This is the first Christmas that's rolled around since I started avidly crafting and sewing and I have a few ideas in the works, mostly for presents for friends. My problem is that I'm just not feeling the Christmas spirit in me. None of the projects I see others posting inspires me to want to rush out and buy the necessary supplies. As much as I typically love the sparkly, magical fun of the Christmas season everything feels like such a letdown compared to the great Halloween projects I was inundated with for the past two months.
On top of that, I struggle every year with being the only person in my house who cares about things like holiday decorations. My husband couldn't care less about the tree, twinkling lights, warm hot chocolate, annual viewing of Love Actually, etc. Alright, I can understand why a guy wouldn't be so keen on that last part but my point is that the responsibility of decorating falls on my shoulders. While I enjoy it to a degree it's always nice to have some help and to feel like my efforts are appreciated by someone other than me. Sure, the cats enjoy the month-long challenge of trying to knock the shiny baubles off the tree and strategically lie in wait under the tree for one of the other unsuspecting cats to wander by but I wouldn't exactly classify that as appreciation. This year the thought of wrestling the tree out of the basement, sorting out the tangled branches, and unwrapping every one of our numerous ornaments seems daunting and like the polar opposite of fun.
Anyone else in the same boat this year? I hope this is just a temporary funk and that some turkey and pumpkin pie next week will rejuvenate and restore me to my former self. Otherwise I'm just going to leave the decorating to the cats and you can only imagine what a mess they'll make of it.
