Anyone else still decorating for Christmas?
I want to decorate the way the Hallmark Movie moms decorate for Christmas. Never-mind the fact that they have Balsam Hill doing all the grunt work. I absolutely love (and borderline covet) how they haul out the holly!
Is anyone else discouraged when they look away from the third Hallmark Movie of the evening and see that the tree across the room is not even fully trimmed? Or, maybe there’s a moment of comparison when you realize there have been no romantic gestures of completely overboard Holiday decorating? Right, me neither.
For the past five years, my Christmas decorating has been done in segments. When all the kids were still in school, we took advantage of Fall Break (I know it’s early) to do all the major decorating. I just can’t seem to get it together since I re-married.
I’ve been allowing it to stress me out. It’s just not like me to not have everything done by Thanksgiving.
In an effort to GROW through this, I decided to take a detailed inventory of why I feel this way.
In no particular order, these are my reasons for being discouraged about not having everything in order:
I don’t want to disappoint my kids. I love the holiday cheer. It’s always done before Thanksgiving. If I don’t get everything up by a certain day, it’s just not worth it to put it up at all. Baby Ira should have all the fun stuff to look at. Not having all the decor up by a certain time makes me feel like a slacker. We have family and friends coming to visit who will enjoy the Christmas decorations. I don’t feel like I can entertain with everything undone. There wasn’t a tradition for decorating when I was growing up. This tradition is important to me. I tend to get a little “blue” during the holidays without all the festive decorations.
These are some pretty wide-ranging reasons, aren’t they? I discovered a theme. It’s the “I, me, my” theme. Is this your anthem, too? Letting myself off the hook for not having everything done isn’t an easy task. Looking at the reasons things are NOT complete has helped me loosen myself from that proverbial hook.
In no particular order, I began thinking of the actual reasons I haven’t been able to finish decorating:
I’ve been working at my job, helping create spaces and places for our community to enjoy. More of my time has been devoted to writing blogs and devotional pieces. My daughter and I are planning four Christmas Nutcracker Tea Parties for the first weekend in December. We are preparing to list our home in early 2019. I went on a 7-day retreat/ writing trip to The Outer Banks of North Carolina & the Nashville, TN area. I’m allocating my time differently than I did 5 years ago.
The hook has disappeared. I am in a totally different season of my life this Christmas Season. As I am writing this, I have an even deeper longing to gather family and decorate together. I believe I will invite everyone over for Christmas Snacks and Decorating this Sunday! A new tradition – where everyone who is available can be part of the fun!
S l o w down.
Someone shared with me last week that Jesus didn’t want Martha to change and become like Mary. He just desired for her to serve from a place of rest. What an interesting thought. Serving from a place of rest.
Let yourself off the hook. Take a moment to inventory what’s going on.
Someone should really make this the storyline for a Hallmark Movie.
We could call it Off the Hook for Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
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