Tuesday, December 01, 2009

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

It was cold when I was dragged from bed this morning by the dog. I'm tired. Too tired for the amount of sleep I am getting. The dude and I are leaving for two weeks in England toward the end of the month. I'm trying to figure out what to do about decorating. The prospect of arriving home in mid-January and taking down the tree(s)...sucks. We've already canceled the Boxing Day celebration that we usually host--it would be insane to host 14 people the day before we left. I think. (Maybe I'm learning something?) But now all those odd jobs--repaint the wall in the kitchen, hem the drapes, hang the blinds in the bedroom--that I thought would get done because we were having people over are now off the list. Still, December promises to be a long month.

So, some choices:
  • I could suck it up and put up both trees and all the trimmings.
  • I could do one tree, but which? The snowmen? The handmade ornaments*? (Stella is the wild card in this equation.)
  • I could just put out the table top decorations; no trees.
  • I could hang a wreath on the door and call it a day.
Please tell me that a few viewings of White Christmas will have me humming under my breath and spreading yuletide cheer very very soon.

Those of you familiar with the back catalog will probably tell me I have this issue every December: "Suck it up already!"

*Sorry, old photo

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I say do the wreath, watch Emmett Otter's Jug band Christmas, and call it a holiday. I used to get things all "christmased" up - but discovered that that if I scrapped a few things I enjoyed the whole season a lot more.

Karen said...

I say slap the wreath on the door then enjoy some eggnog and a CD of Christmas music and call it done. You go, girl!

Susan said...

I think you need a little Christmas, so put out the table top decorations. Those will still be "in season" when you get back from England and it won't be depressing to see them.

Go out and tour your neighborhood to see the lights and get in the spirit. Then call it a day.

Unknown said...

Since we will be back east for Christmas and are not having our traditional Holiday party, no decorating here. We will play the Nutcracker while we address Christmas cards and call it a day. We don't even buy a lot of presents here, but wait until we are back east. There will be plenty of Christmas there (including Graeter's Peppermint Ice Cream -- the ONLY reason for the season).

Siobhán said...

I say stick out the wreath and see how you feel... if it still doesn't feel right, add a few table decorations.

Alice said...

When we lived in London and went home to Calgary for Christmas I didn't put up a tree. The kids were little and had over a month off of school so we left Dec 2 and returned sometime the second week of January. So I figured I was good. 15 years later it is still known as the year we didn't have a tree. Just saying. But if I was you, I'd simplify!

Deb said...

I say the less the better. Who wants to face all that stuff when you get back. Put the wreath on the door and a couple decorations out and call it a day.

Anonymous said...

It's a tree dilemma, for sure. The years we travel we just get a big poinsettia for the living room. This year we are staying home but so far all we have (except for the Griswald lights outside, of course) is a big poinsettia. It's not that I'm too lazy to put up a tree but I definitely do not look forward to taking it down.

Have a fun, fun, fun time in England.

dd

Donna said...

One of our household moves occurred with the packers arriving the day after Christmas. Good timing, eh?

I put up a very small tree. We had Christmas dinner at a restaurant. By 5 p.m. all signs of Christmas we removed from the house and we'd even found time for one last walk on the beach.

I say do the decorating - just scale it back to a manageable level.

Anonymous said...

I would hang the wreath, add a few decorations (lean toward snow/winter versus Christmas/holiday) and then see if you are okay with it! Do what makes you happy!

Have a great trip to England!

Robin in VA

doris said...

How about doing one thing you feel like doing? If you don't feel like doing anything, don't. If enough days pass and you still don't feel like doing anything, problem solved. If you do one little something, it could lead you into feeling like doing another little something, and then you may be on your way to feeling festive.

I know. I sound like Pollyanna. Sometimes I am.

Ruth said...

Are you humming yet? Come on, hum some more. So, how depressing will it really be to come home to the tree(s)? I admit to being biased towards them since I don't have room for one.

Melissa said...

My vote, wreath, table top decorations, and call it Festivus.

With Stella it might be a good year to pass on a tree, especially one with homemade ornaments. My dogs when they were both younger loved nothing better than a snack of a handmade ornament fresh off the tree.

Charlene ♥ NC said...

My vote is for the wreath, and a couple of tabletop snowmen if you MUST have something inside. I keep Santas on a 10 ft high shelf all year so I don't have this dilemma in a pinch. lol

Glad you got the good customer service surprise to improve your season!