The Holiday Scene

(Note: This post was orginally written in October 2007. It was only recently found in the bottom of my trunk and has been dusted off to help Thistlewood Post get under way.)

It’s the beginning of October and the Holiday Gal is at it again. Every flat surface in the house is covered with Halloween decorations looking for a place to stay for the season. We can’t currently use the dining room table, and last night for dinner we had to clear spaces at the counter so we could have a place to sit and eat.

One of Sarah’s more endearing and enduring traits is her love of holiday decorating and everything associated with holidays. She has been doing this ever since I’ve known her, and I don’t expect it will ever stop. Her family didn’t celebrate holidays in any big way, and I think this must be a reaction to her childhood. When we lived in Ohio, Sarah took over the walk-in closet in the upstairs hallway, and we christened it the Holiday Closet. Neighbors used to come by and check it out as a neighborhood novelty. Now we have a shed, another closet and the old armoire from Truckee with Aunt Mickey’s House Rules still tacked to the door, reminding everyone to write down their phone usage and not to use Tide because it’s bad for the septic tank.

Halloween signals the beginning of the Holiday Decorating Season, which will last now through Easter. Each holiday has a vast, vaster or half-vast collection of decorations that goes with it. Halloween is second only to Christmas in volume of available decorations. Next comes Thanksgiving, with some of the decorations carried over from Halloween (the recent phenomenon of referring to both Halloween and Thanksgiving as “Harvest” means that many of the base decorations can be shared, similar to the way that Toyota shares the chassis of a Camry with the Highlander). Pilgrims will replace Ghosts, and the Jack’o’Lantern faces on light covers will be turned around to the plain pumpkin side.

This year we are having a major Halloween tree. In past years we have had a small Halloween tree, but this year we have pulled out the regular Christmas tree (the small one, not the large one) and Sarah has decorated it with Halloween ornaments, orange garland, and Halloween lights. It will sit in the cart that we use to elevate the Christmas tree, and the cart will be filled with harvest-y themed objects including mini hay bales (bought at Michaels and hauled home in the bed of my pickup truck) and artificial pumpkins from China. This is in lieu of the Santas and toys that usually occupy the space at the base of the tree.

The Friday after Thanksgiving begins the Christmas decorating process, although for some years we used to wait until after Stephen’s December birthday to begin this in earnest. Even in our simplified lives, this is always the most elaborate decorating event that we do. I put up the outside lights, and we bring in the trees for the living room and the dining room from their summer quarters in the Cow Shed. Thanksgiving/Harvest decorations get put away, and the house is once again in a turmoil of decorations all over the place for a week or so.

Over the years the nature and sophistication of the trees has evolved from a sort of handcrafted country style, nothing shiny or glittery, to a more elegant style. One tree is decorated exclusively with representations of Santa Claus. The other tree is more traditional in the types of ornaments, and displays a number of ornaments that we have accumulated over the years, including some that the kids made in grade school before the Liberals Declared War On Christmas.

The mantelpiece always displays the Santa figures that Sarah has collected over the years. Some of them are probably valuable, some of them were just inexpensive geegaws that we picked up here and there, but taken as a whole, the sheer volume and variety makes the collection impressive. Each piece also comes with a back story on where it came from and how we came by it. There is a real bridge to the history of our family in this grouping.

When we got married, Sarah and I were definitely not the type to register for china, crystal and silver (although we have extensive collections of silver flatware inherited from legions of deceased relatives on both sides). Consequently, the only formal china we own is a set of Spode Christmas Tree that we begin to use on the Friday after Thanksgiving. During the Holiday Season I can be severely chastised if I forget to use the Spode instead of our usual paper plates.

There is also an extensive collection of Department 56 lighted houses. Although we don’t get all of them out these days, in years past we would build an elaborate Snow Village with the houses, sometimes running a model train through it, and scattering shredded milk jug shavings all over the place to simulate snow. Some years it was quite captivating, sort of our own Christmas window display à la Gumps or the City of Paris.

After Christmas most of the decorations will come down, with the exception of snowmen, and probably a few small trees. The house feels bare after Christmas. Some years we have had a Mardi Gras tree, but not lately. Minimal decoration will carry until us to Valentines, when the white feather tree will be decorated with glass hearts and red beads, and the mantelpiece will have an assortment of Valentine themed items.

After Valentines we may have a modest amount of decorating for St. Patrick’s Day, and even a little bit around President’s Day (not much, maybe a few stars and stripes, but Uncle Sam is already a theme around here anyway, so it doesn’t really stand out).

The final big decorating push will come for Easter. An Easter tree, Easter eggs, bunnies, lots of candy, flags of course. There are flags for all occasions. Once Easter is done, the house goes back to normal with the exception of birthdays and of course, the 4th of July.

Fourth of July stands out as the only major decorating event between Easter and Halloween. Plenty of Uncle Sam icons and American flags cover the mantle, bunting sometimes goes over the front door, and Mary Emmerling books come out and get scattered around the house. My brother John once famously remarked that it looked like Uncle Sam had barfed all over the mantelpiece. The kids thought that was hilarious and have never let a holiday go by since without paying homage to their uncle's remark.

I give Sarah a lot of grief sometimes for all this decorating, and the kids tend to be a bit cynical about it as well. But if there were ever to be a year when it didn't get done, I'm pretty sure there would be some major 'splaining to do.