Thanksgiving Day is behind us, I’ve had countless leftover turkey sandwiches, and now the focus is on decorating the house for the Christmas holidays.

My house is a 1927 craftsman beauty, with lots of wide wood trim, a staircase, a bow front window, and a corner fireplace.  It just screams “decorate me!” during the holiday season.  It also begs to be adorned in a particular style.  No pinks or blues, no modern art pieces or crazy digital displays.  No sir, my home is perfectly suited for the kind of “classic Christmas” décor that festoons old Coca-Cola postcards and 1950’s Christmas movies.

I’m talking classic pine boughs and holly berries.  Poinsettias and a subdued color palate of red, gold, and green.  White lights, solidly lit (take your disco show somewhere else, you heathen) and adorning every wreath, mantle, or windowsill.  A single candle in each window, and more classic green garland and vertical swatches on the porch posts.  Add in some “Nat King Cole” crooning in the background and its all “Currier and Ives” up in this house during the month of December.  I nickname the living room “Christmas Town”, and spend most of my evenings sitting in the midst of it all, just enjoying the ambience.

But first, it has to get there. 

That means countless trips up and down the attic stairs for boxes and totes  (usually badly labeled) full of stuff that was begrudgingly packed away in January of last year.  Where are all of the kitchen bows?  Why are they in the box with the living room stuff?  These candles are all melted.  Is the Nativity set over there behind that pile?

Then there’s the tree.  We have an artificial one, and it takes a team of three to fluff, prime, and add lights to this thing to make it resemble a perfect mountain-cut specimen.  Do all of the lights work?  Hallelujah!  That’s a small miracle right there.  Where are all the extension cords?  Then it’s on to tree decorations.  Whoops!  Dropped that heirloom from Aunt Bonnie.  It just shattered into a million pieces.  Everyone stay still while I get the pan and broom.

Meanwhile, I’ve kept 3M in ridiculous profit margins from all of the Command strips I keep buying year after year to tack things temporarily to the walls.  Why won’t this one stay up?  The garland keeps falling down from the weight.  I’ll just get a hammer and a nail.  See if you come down now, stupid garland.

Now, in order to cut down on extension cords strewn every which way in the house, I’ve opted for battery-operated strings of lights.  Just small ones, but I have them everywhere.  How many?  Well, it takes me about 90 AA batteries and about 25 AAA batteries for one round of lighting (which I’ll have to replace at least once during the holidays).  That damn pink rabbit owes me a private dance with his little bass drum.

Next, the porch.  More garland, lights, and decorations.  Due to the wind coming down off of the mountain to the west of town, I have to tie down everything tight enough to survive a CAT 2 hurricane or else all my hard work ends up somewhere due east of here (probably Smithsburg, by the time it stops rolling around).  Why is it so cold this week?

Is it a lot of work?  You bet. 

Is it worth it?  Absolutely.

Happy holidays, everyone.