| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/10/2008 3:53:29 PM | Some single friends and I were discussing Christmas decorations and how our way of celebrating Christmas has changed since kids are grown and there is no one in our lives at this point. I won't be decorating at Christmas because there is no place to put the tree as I am in the process of remodeling my house.
A widower that I know won't decorate because it was his late wife's favorite holiday and he can't stand it.
I am having trouble deciding when to have the kids over as they have to go to their dad's, their inlaws and the grand-in law homes. I hate for them to run everywhere so I may have a celebration at some other time.
How has your celebration changed since you are single? What will you do special this year. | |
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/10/2008 6:53:13 PM | Jeeze...this place becomes Christmasland this time of year.
Not just a tree...but other displays too...like two "villages", complete with horses, sleighs, people, mountains in the background, a "pond" with skaters and an ice fishing shack...a train...all lit up...also an "in scale" x-mas tree...lit up. Sheesh.
Life sized Santa and Mrs Clause...she's holding a tray of cookies for those who want one (yes, we put out cookies daily into that thing...last year three times a day a couple times!)
A fake fireplace with miniature piano, and real fur rug, and some dolls dressed in holiday garb, playing the piano, sitting by the fireplace, sliding down a "hill" on a sled...all kind sof things.
Not to mention all the ceiling and wall hangers, lights in the windows (candy canes, stars, snowmen).
Yep...she goes way out there for decorating.
Even the table...special table clothe, chair backs, place mats, dishware....
The old folks really enjoy it, and a lot of the townspeople come over just to see this place. | |
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/10/2008 7:02:39 PM | | Oh yes, things have certainly changed over the years. I haven't unpacked my Christmas decorations since my divorce seven years ago. My daughter has moved away, and I really miss baking cookies with her! I visit with family and enjoy their decorations and light some candles at home. I still love Christmas for everything it stands for. | |
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/11/2008 6:11:09 AM | one year i had viral menningitus AND was remodeling. the 4 of us were upstairs in two rooms! i let the kids decorate. they could do whatever they wanted to (they were not little kids) oh it was cute. they strung lights all around the ceiling of the room they were sleeping. and did a few other things.
i usually would get a real tree. we would go cut one down from a local tree farm. but this year with the remodel and the illness i could not do that. i had NEVER had a year in my life without a tree, a real tree sooo i struggled up to the nearest gorcer and bought a good sized potted norfolk pine. then i have the kids decorate it.
this awful year has turned out to be one of the kids' favorite christmases.
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/11/2008 9:10:34 AM | | I scaled back this year because my energy level was dipping just after Thanksgiving. I'm still pretty decorated though. When I had a bigger home, it was like a Christmas Village. I still have a ton of stuff I could put out. I also Freecycled a bunch of things figuring someone who needed it should enjoy it. | |
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/11/2008 12:45:38 PM | This is the first year since my divorce I've had a tree. This is also the first Christmas in four years I wasn't recovering from major surgery, so I got a tree. Not as big as I used to, but nice. I'm going to decorate it this weekend and enjoy the holidays. Family situations are different, but workable. The main thing for me was to just enjoy the holiday and appreciate all I have this year. Good friends, a job I enjoy, a great church family, and family that are precious to me. My health is better, and outside of that, I am truly happy this year.
I didn't use the decorations from when we were married, I purposely got new ones. I will use the one's made by the kids or given as gifts, but the rest are new. It might not be as fully decorated as I would like, but its a starting place for new beginnings, just like my life. One step at a time...
My house doesn't look like the one on Home Alone, but it is quite cozy. Plus just being me, I can't get it all done anyway, so less is more this year. | |
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/11/2008 3:51:26 PM | When I lived up North (as a single woman and not that "creepy cat lady"), I took great pleasure in decorating my fireplace mantle with greenery and holly as well as lugging that dang tree up 3 flights of steps (whew). I only had 3 critters at that time so my decorations stayed on my tree and didn't end up behind the couch or in the bathtub. Now I reside in Florida, (still single and now that "creepy cat lady") and decorating a palm tree just doesn't quite have the same feeling as it used to. Also, I have a lot more critters running around now and if I want to decorate for Christmas I'll have to hang everything from my ceiling if I don't want it destroyed within 6 minutes.
Ah, well. I suppose I'll just have to enjoy gazing at all my neighbors lights and decorations while snickering at what their electric bill will be next month not to mention all the vacuum cleaners that will be thrown away after having to suffer "needle overload." lol
Sans | |
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/11/2008 4:09:05 PM | | Sans, why not cut out the middle man and pour your Christmas ornaments out on the floor and let the critters just bat them around? Could be good for a few hours worth of entertainment on Christmas Day especially if you have young critters. | |
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/11/2008 4:26:22 PM | ^^^^Excellent idea if it weren't for the fact my little gremlins would not only bat a fuzzy santa around, they would actually dismember him! Oh, the horror of it all!!! LOL One critter would poop out santa's wooly white beard and the other ones would poop out his red suit, and my kitten would certainly "pass" santa's head like a kidney stone a few days later!! You understand my dilemma, I'm sure. lol
I do miss decorating for Christmas though, and if I thought I could put my little ones in a crib with lockdown maximum security and a state of the art alarm system for 12 hours I would decorate my place for Christmas like a fiend!!
Sans | |
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/11/2008 4:32:00 PM | San, rather than put up a tree I thread holly garland with twinkle lights and drape it around my living room. Very festive. And you can hang up wreaths and other ornaments on the wall. So go for it. Frustrate your kitties for Christmas by hanging up all that stuff out of their way. They can content themselves with chasing wrapping paper around the house and eating bows off the presents, the little devils. | |
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/11/2008 6:19:00 PM | I think I must have a screw loose. Decorating gets bigger and takes longer every year. My late hubby was a Christmas aficionado, and I seem to have continued the tradition. I've had the crews out since the day after Thanksgiving, and we are still putting stuff up.
I do have a big Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and the people in the neighborhood really love all the stuff. | |
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/11/2008 8:50:04 PM | 
<< There I am sitting next to the small tree I decorated a few days after Thanksgiving.
I've also put green Christmas lights around my window.. and have little decorations/toys sittin' here and there.. plus greenery and baskets with pine cones on the porch.
Of course nothing like I did when I had a housefull of kids.. and I did have a housefull of kids for years....... and years...... and years (biological and foster).
It's nice, ya know? To just sit and enjoy some Christmas lights .. during a peaceful evening. | |
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/11/2008 9:02:02 PM | | Breath, I have most of my lights off right now and am basking in the light from my tree and my laptop, lol. | |
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/13/2008 3:27:18 PM | ^^ Yep, I know what you mean.
Just feels nice. Looks pretty. Feels comforting/peaceful.
I hear lots of people crabbing about how yucky Christmas is... yadda yadda... and I just sit back and enjoy the joy right here with my little lights and peaceful Nest that I have made around me. I choose not to focus on the dark negatives.. but on the light, (or lights, in this case).
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/13/2008 3:46:22 PM | My family celebrates Christmas on the 25th, and my ex's celebrates on the 24th. My girls still enjoy the festivities of both days, and I've gradually backed out his family gatherings. I decorate as much as before (if not more!) simply because I looovvve the holidays!
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/16/2008 7:45:52 AM | I decorate for every holiday and Halloween and Christmas are my favorites. Since the girls have gotten older, this house is transformed into a Winterwonderland each Christmas. Both girls help with the decorating and it always brings back memories when certain ornaments that were handed down are unwrapped. I still put up the handmade ornaments that the girls have made me in school in addition to some of the ones I "inherited" from my mother that I made as a kid. Each year I buy a few ornaments for the girls to take when they go out on their own...
Happy Holidays everyone!      | |
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/16/2008 8:40:14 AM | My mom insists on going all out with the decorations every year. We have a sleigh and reindeer and lit trees in the yard, garland on the door and railing, candy canes along the walkway and the fence is lit up
Our tree is beautiful - a perfect noble fir with an angel on top
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/16/2008 8:59:36 AM | We have a tiny tree for the homework table, a three foot tree with white lights, & the six footer in the living room. I hang a wreath on the door and that's pretty much the extent of my decorating. Alot of the bigger neighborhoods that have gone all out for several years have cut back considerably---but we still enjoy driving around looking @ the displays.
I love lying under the tree looking up @ the lights...takes me back to being an 8 yr old with my 3 yr old sister lying beside me. :) | |
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/16/2008 5:58:15 PM | Seems like it changes every year. The 1st single year (16 years ago) I was determined to finally buy a real tree - a huge 12 ft'r. With a little help from the tree guy - he delivered and set it up. A tree so huge it required a bed skirt for a tree skirt. My little girl and I decorated and were sooooo proud and admired it's beauty...much nicer than those fakes we'd had.
The next morning we woke up and went to sit by the lit tree and enjoy coffee, newspaper and each other and noticed something under the tree. TICKS!!! Dying but it was still TICKS!!! I called that sweet tree guy and he said don't worry they're dying with the heat. So I shook off the "tree/bed skirt" and slept a couple of nights imagining crawly things. Then I concluded that was just ridiculous!
Two weeks later, I woke up to find another hatching of TICKS!!!! and that was my last real tree.
BTW now I decorate as though there will be a houseful, because I do have various guests in and out during the holidays....and mainly because I have a NYE pajama party and we can still rock around the Christmas tree...even in January! | |
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clown0
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Joined: 9/24/2008
Msg: 20 | |
| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/17/2008 3:07:09 AM | I would like to decorate Santa with a couple black eyes, a busted lip, a broken nose, a big goose egg on his forehead and urine all in his hair. Then turn around a watch the little kids cry, while I am laughing | |
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/17/2008 2:24:23 PM | I haven't changed my decorating style at all since I divorced cause I have loads of young ones in my immediate family. I think it would be a disservice to them, and me to not throw some garland on the mantle, hang the stockings, get all my snowmen out and onto the banister. I love Christmas lights so much that I keep a string of them lit in my bedroom.
I don't know I guess its just the soft glow of those lights that warms me and makes me feel cozy. | |
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/17/2008 7:39:48 PM | | I have 2 kids at home, and I'm usually the one that ends up hosting Christmas! Therefore I have the tree, the mantle, stockings, wreaths and lights all in place!! | |
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/17/2008 8:44:30 PM | i had a car wreck last tuesday and am having some pains.
last week two of my good poffers came over to help me with putting up my christmas decorations ( they may have been sorry after they go there teehee too much stuff)
it is nice to have the house done, i am having some friends over saturday and sure would have been upset if the house didnt look like christmas.
 to my pof elfs
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| Decorating for Christmas?
Posted: 12/17/2008 8:56:33 PM | People still decorate their homes for Christmas?
Great, now I'm probably supposed to get a tree again... | |
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