Three Holidays in a Row


 Well here we are again. It's that time of year when three major holidays come at us one right after another. And the decorating has begun.

With Halloween behind us we are heading toward Thanksgiving. We can put away the witches and ghosts but keep the pumpkins and gourds on display. The cornstalks too. And then after Thanksgiving, put the pumpkins and gourds away. Throw out the cornstalks and get on with decorating for Christmas. Some people keep their outside lights in place all year long. Some use Thanksgiving as their marker to put their outside lights back up. We all do it differently. 

Some decorate for Halloween. Leave those decorations in place and add their Thanksgiving decorations to the mix. Then top all of those decorations off with Christmas decorations. It's fun to drive around and see what others have done. I've come to enjoy seeing witches next to Pilgrims and Santa Claus with his reindeer. But I'm one who needs space between the three holidays. I need to give each its own spotlight. It's own time to be enjoyed.  As I said, we all do it differently.

My mother was a meticulous decorator. Everything had its place. Except for sometimes using the same fine tablecloth for Thanksgiving and Christmas, there was no blending of the holidays. She was never big on Halloween. I don't remember any ghouls or monsters on display. Orange candles may have been it. She never taped stuff to the windows. Or put pumpkins on the front porch. To my mother, it was all about decorating for Christmas and that never happened until after Thanksgiving. And when it happened, it was glorious.

My parents always went to the same place for the Christmas tree. She'd always pick out a very tall, very full tree. It was up to my father to get the lights on the tree. He was very particular in how he did that job. He never liked the wires showing. Once the lights were in place out came the boxes of decorations. Many had been bought at Woolworths. I still have a few of those Woolworths decorations. I don't hang them on the tree. I always put them on display for Christmas-after Halloween and Thanksgiving have come and gone.

Happy decorating! There's no right or wrong way. Only your way.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

National Sewing Month

Image
 IN RECOGNITION of SEPTEMBER BEING NATIONAL SEWING MONTH I have written extensively about my mother’s fabric shop which was attached to our home out in the country where I spent many a school evening ‘designing’ outfits instead of doing homework, especially math. When I was in my preteens my grandmother taught sewing on Saturday mornings during the winter in my mother's shop. That is where I learned about darts and inseams, marking, and pinning patterns and secrets on how to cut patterns out. While it took me forever to trim a pattern, pin it to the fabric, and cut it out, my grandmother did it in lightning speed. And when she was not the instructor, she would be in her home, in her sewing room sitting at her little black Singer sewing machine with a tape measure around her neck, pumping the foot pedal and turning out one beautifully sewn item after another. She had the eye for her artform and when you have the eye, creativity is the driving force. My mother also had the eye. She w...
Read more

A Kitten In the Old Barn

Image
 My son  Brian & I had been thinking about getting a kitten for the longest time but there was always a reason why we put it off. Truth is those reasons were just excuses. My excuses. The thought of bringing a kitten into our home exhausted me. I did not welcome the responsibility. Besides Brian wanting us to get a kitten, so did my two grandchildren, ages 11 and 14. I would keep telling them "Pretty soon." Then they would get busy, or I would get busy, and it never happened. Until this past week. Another summer was quickly passing by and soon, I told myself, they would not bother to ask about going for a kitten. They'd have more important things to do. And so, late one morning this past week, after telling Brian what I was up to, I picked those two grandchildren up. I said we were going to lunch and then maybe Alex Bay for the afternoon. After having our lunch, I told them I had to make a quick trip to Walmart. Once inside, I put a few things in my cart. Then I led ...
Read more

Those Small Milk Cartons With Straws

Image
I can't remember what elementary grade I was in when taking a morning break to enjoy a small, sometimes cold and sometimes not so cold small container of whole milk with my classmates. The Milk Break was part of the daily schedule. I do remember how good it tasted. The milk didn't come in flavors. Not even chocolate. There was no fat free or calcium enriched or soybean milk. Just whole milk in individual cartons.  The cartons were either opened by the teacher and then the student put a straw into the milk or there was a sealed hole in the carton and either the student or teacher pushed a straw through the hole. Straws were not fancy or colored. They did not have brand names or licensed characters on them. They did not have loops, making it possible to watch the milk go around the loops as a student sucked on the straw. They did not come wrapped in cellophane attached to the carton.  Instead, the teacher would walk around each table full of students, stopping beside each studen...
Read more