Simplifying Christmas

 Once upon a time, when my kids were young, we did a lot of the Christmas things. I baked all kinds of Christmas cookies, we made gingerbread houses, there was Christmas decor all over the house. As our kids have grown and gone, things have changed, and I'm all for the changes. Sure, we have a few grandkids in town, but I figure most of the Christmas stuff should be done with their families. We had Christmas before we had children, and we'll have Christmas even if it's just the two of us at some future point in time.  Don't get me wrong, I have made gingerbread houses with the grandkids, I just don't consider it my job to do so. My grandkids are also growing up, so doing things like that is not as big of a factor anymore. 

I've been looking for ways to simplify Christmas. We do get together with the local family, but never on Christmas Day.  Families with young kids are busy, busy in December, and I don't want to add to their stress. This year, "family Christmas" will be in early January. The plus side of that for me is that I get a few extra days to get the presents sewn for the locals! 

Last year I did some brutal decluttering of Christmas decor. It's not a popular thing to admit, but I hate decorating the Christmas tree. I don't like having to rearrange the living room to fit a Christmas tree in the room, and why are most Christmas ornaments heavy, but the branches of either a live or fake tree can't handle the weight? 

OK, so I've admitted I don't like decorating the Christmas tree, but I have some Christmas ornaments that are really special to me. I debated making a quilted wallhanging, and attaching the best ornaments. I figured I could put the hanging loops over buttons or something, but then I started thinking about the weight of the ornaments again. While surfing the internet last year, I came across this post about a salvage wooden Christmas tree. I showed the post to DH, and told him I'd like him to make me something similar to that, but I'd still like to have Christmas lights, and a star on top, and I wanted to hang our ornaments from the knobs. The salvage tree was my inspiration, but I wanted it to be more us. 

Some people have designer Christmas trees, and if that's what you like, fantastic! I have always wanted my Christmas tree to be more meaningful than pretty, and very personal. For 41 years now, we've hung an "Our First Christmas Together 1984" ornament on our tree. If I purchased a new Christmas ornament, it had to have some kind of meaning to it, like the S'mores ornament I bought the year we started camping. I'm not sure quite how it started, but we started buying ornaments every time we took a trip. We took the kids to Disneyland, got an ornament. Went to a Broadway show, bought an ornament, went to Hawaii for our 25th anniversary, bought an ornament. DH went a medical mission trip to Ecuador, he came home with an ornament, DS the Elder travelled internationally quite a bit, and he brought us ornaments from Australia, Japan, and Egypt. We went to South Africa for DD#1's wedding, we bought an ornament. DD#2 did a mission trip in Peru, she got us an ornament. Our Christmas tree is not designer in the way that everything matches and is coordinated. It does, however, have a design, in that it tells the story of our lives. 

Several years ago, DS the Younger asked me why our tree looked like a homeless person's tree. I looked at the random stuff hanging on it, keychains from trips, handmade ornaments people had given us over the years, and I could see his point. It did look random, and even when I had the opportunity to buy fancy ornaments, I often opted for more meaningful ones. 

When we went to South Africa, I saw gorgeous ornaments, but what did I actually buy?

I bought this angel made out of a soda can! And it has such a great story, I've kept the tag on it all these years!

One of the stores we went into in South Africa had these amazing hand carved ornaments, but I came home with a soda can angel. Could I have bought both the fancy ornament and the soda can ornament? Sure I could have, but the soda can angel meant more to me. 

DH has been working on my Christmas tree for a few weeks now, but he finished it yesterday. 

Here it is with the lights and mismatched hardware. All the wood is from one pallet. Most of the knobs and other hardware I got at Hobby Lobby, but some we found at thrift stores and a couple thrift shops that sell leftover building supplies to raise money for Habitat for Humanity. We could have left it just like this, and it would still be fun, but I took our best ornaments, and hung them from the knobs and drawer pulls. 

Now it looks like this, and DH and I had fun decorating it, talking about all the trips we've taken, or the people who made the ornaments for us. 

I was never offended by the homeless people's tree comment. I knew our son was young and he didn't understand that the tree represented the course of our lives, the people we met, the places we went. Our tree is more mismatched and random than ever, and I love it! The only rearranging of the living room was to move the quilt rack over a couple feet, and this tree isn't an obstacle to take up massive amounts of space. 

I decorated the fireplace mantle, hung a wreath on the door, and put a couple decorations in the kitchen. It's simple, easy, and still feels like Christmas. It went up in just over an hour, and I could put it all away in less time than that. Instead of six totes and boxes of Christmas decor, I have two, plus the wooden tree. It's enough, it's simple, and it's us!