The day after Thanksgiving, we start to pull out our Holiday Decorations.
A Wise Woman once told me that you shouldn’t re-decorate your entire home just for Christmas. Holiday Decorations are like jewelry – you CAN wear too much.
I like that approach.
Some tips:
If the box of holiday decorations sits unopened longer than 48 hours in the room you were planning on using them in, face it, you aren’t getting to them š
If you cannot find a logical place for a decoration, donate it. Re packing it for next year, won’t make it magically fit in your home next year.
Beautiful Wreath
One of our BEST Holiday Seasons ever was the one where we donated 2 of every 3 decorations (yes 75%). This included ribbon, garland, ornaments….so much stuff. The receivers were grateful and we felt cleansed. The house was more enjoyable with less stuff Ā (& no, we didn’t use it as an excuse to buy more).
How we did it:
Santa & his Elf in NYC
- Hired two people to bring absolutely EVERY Christmas Decoration & light strand to the garage from all corners of the property
- Set everything out garage sale style (it was embarrassing how much we had accumulated without knowing it)
- Went through and were brutal about every single decoration: was it ADDING to our life by keeping it…?? Most of the time the answer was a resounding NO.
- When we were done there was very little that wouldn’t bless someone else more than it was blessing us: we shipped and drove boxes to our local preschool, local women’s shelter and Salvation Army & Goodwill
- It was the first year we had all our decorations ‘in place’ early so we could enjoy them and there was NO stress in my mind thinking that I had to decorate another room because there were more decorations sitting unused in the South Shed
A Decorators Disclaimer: I love the Holidays. I have holiday china, I have pretty much “holiday everything”. I still address most of the house (& yes, our cabin as well), HOWEVER, the process is now manageable. Ā It no longer takes over the days & includes scores of household employees. When you spend more time decorating and then un –Ā decorating than the season is long…there is a problem!
Here’s to December!
ps…has anyone laughed out loud at those Target commercials as hard as I have? If you know the one I am talking about and actually own a red sweat suit and pearls….you get it!! Ā Blessings to you!!
Couture Chateau 