This is what our tree looks like this afternoon.
We did decorate it. The children helped and enjoyed hanging the ornaments on the tree. But then the next day came and Sweet J couldn’t help himself. All the “bah”s were too enticing. Thankfully the ball ornaments, like the rest, are plastic and unbreakable but it was still a problem. “Bah”s often get thrown in our house.
Since J was playing with the ornaments, Love Bug felt like she should too. More and more of the ornaments began disappearing and appearing in various bags and pouches. I had to do a lot of refereeing, search and rescue and hanging and rehanging.
The final straw was that, despite the unbreakable-ness of the decor, five ornaments were broken within three days of trimming the tree. So I took them all off. Even the nativity scene I painted last year was affected, now under watch and only allowed supervised visits. One poor camel lost a leg and one of the wise men might be lost forever.
Then I took a deep breath.
Sure, I am sad the tree isn’t decorated more and I don’t like monitoring toy usage like a hawk. I love holiday decorations and I love how the children play with things. (Recently, I found most of the nativity in our hall closet amongst our blankets and travel toiletries and had to Instagram it. Guess it was the only room available. :) I am partial to simple, unobtrusive decorations and I think they add to the wonder that is this season. However, it’s more peaceful this way. Next year will be better and some day, there will be no little thieves rearranging things and I’ll probably cry about it. Plus it gives us some motivation to make other ornaments. Very non-breakable ones. :)
I wanted to share this to 1.) make myself feel better. I do feel a little bah-humbug-ish but again it’s better this way. And 2.) I thought sharing this would pull back the curtain a little bit. Even if you love decorating and have a million ideas and board upon board on Pinterest dedicated to having the most awesome decorations, it might not be worth the headache. And that’s okay. Christmas will still happen. The holiday spirit can still be alive and well inside you. You can use the extra energy you have from not redecorating the tree six times a day to do any number of other more enjoyable activities.
For our other activities, we made a list of 24 festive things we wanted to do this season. From snow play and cookie making to a couple of family game nights and a live nativity. I’m really looking forward to checking things off our list and make some memories.
For me, the holiday is about enjoying the season, being warm and festive on the outside but more importantly, on the inside. I’d rather my children remember making ornaments and cookies and cards instead of their mom playing guard of the Christmas tree. :)
Take care.
I love your writing. I can just see James enjoying the “bahs.” :)
Would it make you feel better to know that our tree has been up for 2.5 weeks now, only has lights up on half of it, and that the shatter-proof ornaments I picked up this year are not on the tree but instead being used as a substitute for hockey pucks? I can’t help but laugh. And while the tree is looking awful sad, at least it smells good. Life with a little one is far from boring! And maybe I can at least get some decorations up for the 24th/25th. Happy Holidays!
Haha! Our tree looked the same way the year Sweet J was born. It was a fake tree that year and just had lights on it. I like just lights so I was alright with it but I did feel bad that it wasn’t more festive. Thanks for sharing. :) Happy holidays to you!