Getting in that Holiday Spirit

I like Christmas, I really do. 

I have always been the first person to hang a wreath on the door or start playing xmas songs on the stereo the minute the holidays would come around.  I would go to great lengths each year planning and then executing THE perfect gift basket of cookies (all homemade with little recipe cards attached).  And of course these baskets would be in the perfect receptacle – whether that was  wicker or in decorative tins.  And they would always look as good as they tasted.  Anyway, that was then (then being 5-10 years ago).  Now?  Well let me say that for the past two years I haven’t even bothered to put up a Christmas tree let alone put a Martha Stewart twist on presents.  And sending Christmas cards?  What’s that?  It’s terrible really.  Where did the holiday spirit go?

I decided that this year it’s going to be different because I’m feeling different.  I’ve had some stresses in my life over the past 5 or so years and in a way I think that affected my approach to the holidays.  Instead of seeing them as a celebration of friends, family and tradition, I came to see them as just another nerve-racking event to endure and get past.  That’s no way to feel about Santa and holiday turkey!  But I’m happy to report that I think my brain is moving past the ‘poor me’ stage into a much happier place.  So happy in fact that this year I’m going to put that tree up and even throw a wreath on the door.  Being a quilter I’m even considered making some seasonally appropriate table runners and a cheery holiday banner or two.  Unbelievably I have no quilt related items with any kind of Thanksgiving/Christmas feel to it.   I’ve never been, even in my Jingle Bells singing period, a person who decorates with a lot of kitsch.  But having a quilt with a seasonal look would certainly fit in with my decor.  Or even a table runner with a bit of glitter or gold would be nice.  

So this year?  This year the Grinch and Mrs. Scrooge are out the door.  This year I’m turning on the Tune In Radio Christmas themed streaming music, decorating with the synthetic tree complete with tacky snow tinsel and all the red, white and blue trimmings, hanging the pine scented recycled plastic wreath on the door and dusting off the stuffed antler head band appropriate only for my dog Daphne to wear (she makes a cuter reindeer than me...).  I might even browse through some of my old cookie recipes to create a couple of special gifts for friends made with that homemade touch that only a holiday spirited happy homemaker can conger up.  So this year its Ho, Ho, Ho....all the way.