I should prepare myself. It happens every year so why am I so shocked. Every year I get blindsided
For a day or two before all of us stop turning on the Xmas tree and village. The inflatables are down for the count. The outdoor lights are dark. The presents are scattered about the house rather than stacked under the Christmas tree. To all intents and purposes, Christmas is over.
I am still let down. The taking down of the decorations signals the end of my favorite holiday season. As a naturalized U.S. citizen, holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving are my adopted holidays. Even when my family lived in New Jersey while I was a child I don’t recall my mother doing anything more for Halloween than having a pumpkin on the porch or using a fall leaf placemat on the kitchen table for Thanksgiving. But Christmas was our BIG holiday.
For years my parents we had two Christmas trees — one red and one silver. A Nativity scene. Adventcalendar. Snow scene on a piece of styrofoam. You name it we had it. No outdoor lights or candy canes, but the house was decorated for Christmas.
It’s the undecorating that I dislike…the moment where you realize that the tree must come down. Although our tree could stay up forever…one of the plusses of an artificial tree!
Last night I started taking decorations off one at a time. Decorating the tree is such a mad rush with kids clamouring to “help” that I don’t get a chance to walk down memory lane. I love looking at decorations and remembering when we bought them or were given them.
Reminiscing about the decorations takes the sting out of taking down all the decorations.
