Embracing the Holidays

I’ve written before that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It’s still true, and I keep the season pure in my home. I decorate for the seasons, which is a more recent development, but since I’ve lived outside my parents’ home, I’ve always waited to decorate for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving. Some people prefer to decorate earlier, and I pass no judgment on what they choose to do in their own homes.

When did autumn start to disappear?

Maybe it’s my age, but it feels like autumn (or fall) gets shorter every year. When retailers have Christmas decor out before Halloween, it can feel like harvest or the season of thankfulness is getting overlooked in favor of the flashier holidays. Of course, there are also stores like Hobby Lobby that typically have Christmas decor out in July.

I can’t get behind actively shopping for holiday decor while wearing shorts and walking out into air that feels like an oven. That’s not to say I haven’t bought decor items outside of seasons during clearance sales or at thrift stores.

When does the holiday season begin?

For my family, the typical holiday season begins with Thanksgiving and continues through New Year’s Day. Then we reset and find out what the year has for our family.

Celebrating and decorating

Working from home keeps me in my house more than ever, so I enjoy surrounding myself with beautiful things. My home office has various pieces of art hung in gallery style and also houses my lapel pin collection. I like to decorate the rest of my home for the seasons and holidays.

New Year’s Day

I typically take down Christmas Decorations on New Year’s Day and reset my home for the year. I like to reflect on the past year and set goals for the new one.

Valentine’s Day

I place some decorations out from February 1-February 15. My husband and I typically exchange cards or small gifts and go out to dinner. I get the kids some candy or a small gift.

St. Patrick’s Day

I display a few decor items from March 1-18. I wear green on March 17.

Easter

I have a few cute bunny decor pieces to place on the mantle. Up until this year, I would place a spring wreath on the front door. Now I am using a wooden sign instead because we had birds build a nest in the wreath last spring, and it ended badly. We typically have a nice Easter lunch with family, and the kids get candy. When they were little, we’d hide eggs.

Independence Day

I don’t have a ton of decor for the holiday (but I might get something in the future). If I were to decorate, I would likely do so from the end of June through July 5. We typically cook burgers and hot dogs at our house and shoot off some fireworks. Of course, we also watch Independence Day (1995).

Halloween

I enjoy putting out Halloween and fall decor for October. A few spooky-themed pieces make the house feel festive. When the kids were little, we would let them dress up and go to Halloween events or Trick-or-Treating at known places. Meredith and I enjoy spooky movies, and the men in the house like the candy.

Thanksgiving

Once Halloween is over, I leave out some of the fall decor that isn’t too Halloween-themed and add a few items about being thankful and grateful. I love Thanksgiving. I’ve always enjoyed reflecting on what I’m thankful for and blessing others when possible. We’ve spent the holiday at different family members’ homes, and we’ve also hosted large gatherings at our home.

My husband’s birthday occasionally falls on Thanksgiving Day, so we often combine the meal with a birthday celebration for him. For the last two years, my family has stayed home and celebrated with just our household. Life has been stressful, and sometimes it’s nice to have a smaller meal with our kids and get some rest by not traveling.

Christmas

For me, the Christmas season begins the day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday was more of a big deal in years past, especially when I worked at JCPenney during college. There were big sales super early in the morning, and stores were hopping. Sales still happen, but I’ve been getting “early Black Friday” sale emails since October.

Honestly, I get so many sale emails year-round that I delete most without reading them. They’re nice to have when I need or want something, but when everything is on sale all the time, is anything really on sale? And then there’s Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday (which evolved to Cyber Week, Cyber Month, Cyber all the time), Giving Tuesday, and so on.

As I mentioned earlier, I tend to decorate the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. Outdoor decorations depend on the weather. We have lights and a few inflatables that we set on a timer. Inside, I decorate mainly the living room and entryway, but I have a few smaller things for the kitchen and dining room. We use an artificial tree that has seen better days, but I can’t justify the expense of a new one right now. Plus, I painstakingly removed the attached lights when they stopped working about three years ago, and I want to make it worth my time.

I purchase a Hallmark ornament for my kids each year and store all their ornaments in a container for them to take with them when they move out someday. I’ve been collecting Spotlight on Snoopy Hallmark ornaments since 1998, along with a few others. We don’t put all the ornaments on the tree each year, but it is nice to make it beautiful.

With puppies in the house, I know I’ll have to gate our tree again this year as I did for their first Christmas last year. I’ll send out Christmas cards to family and friends because I love doing so. I enjoy the Christmas season, but it can be more stressful for me than Thanksgiving. It’s a lot more pressure because I want my kids to enjoy the holiday and make good memories. It’s more difficult as they get older.

Trying to avoid disillusionment

Holidays can also be difficult. The strain of life, family relationships, the economy—you name it, and it can be stressful. Focusing on traditions helps, but sometimes they don’t last, and sometimes attempting to start a new tradition fails. For example, my family tried to start a tradition of shopping for each other at the Dollar Tree, but that only lasted two years. Same with a tradition to get a new book on Halloween.

I still keep my tradition of watching holiday movies, even if no one else wants to join me. At the end of the day, we’re all responsible for making our own joy, no matter the season.

Dear readers, what’s your favorite holiday or tradition? Let me know in the comments.

Thank you for reading,

-Brandi Easterling Collins

Image by freepik