Wednesday, November 5, 2014

I don't understand seasonal decorating.

I don't understand it. Every single holiday every single woman pulls out special "decor" for their house/apartment/condo. The "regular" decor is put away in boxes and the new color scheme is implemented with artful grace and enough packing peanuts to drown a three-year-old.

Except for me. I don't change my decor. I mean, it's just stuff on shelves. I don't understand this tradition and I sigh every time it takes over my pinterest feed. I don't care about welcoming in fall by changing my house to match the colors of the falling leaves outside my window. It just seems silly to put the perfectly good decorations I already have out into boxes and buy ones that match the season when the season is just going to change again. I don't need more then one set of useless, pretty crap for my house.


And during Christmas everyone (I mean everyone) seems to think that life is suddenly lacking in the red and green and glittery department--not only lacking, but also that it's their personal job to make up for this shortcoming of holiday cheer. Trust me, Walmart and Target display enough jolly Santa Claus and Christmas trees to make me never want to see those colors again, especially not in my own home. I think I might just crawl under my own bed from sensory overload at that point.

So can someone please explain to me why this is a thing, and why, when I mentioned I did not subject myself to this utter meaningless birthright in my women's bible study I was met with blank stares and outright looks of horror?

No thank you Walmart. You can keep your plastic autumn decor and your pumpkin scented candles and your sparkly lights. I like my living room just the way it is. 

And don't even get me started on how prevalent Christmas music is, and how much it ruins any and all enjoyment with the overplaying and the busyness and the cheer. I mean, I like Christmas. I just don't like it shoved down my throat every time I turn around.

13 comments:

Rachel G said...

I'm not one to seasonally decorate, though I attribute this to laziness and cheapness on my part. I do enjoy putting up a christmas tree and stockings every year (well, not this one, and maybe never again...), plus my precious tiny pewter nativity scene that my sister gave me right before my family abandoned me to face America by myself (it was a rough time, and I keep the nativity scene in view more often than not in the years since then). I think both mine and Angel's love for Christmas trees is focused on the lights...Angel is precisely the kind of person who would put up Christmas lights all over the house and leave them up all the time, not because of Christmas but because he LOVES anything that lights up--and I've come to love them, largely because when I see crazy things that light up, they remind me of him. (Side note: He's on the search for light up tennis shoes...the kind 3 year olds wear, but for men.). The only thing that prevented our house in Michigan from being covered with lights was again, laziness and cheapness. We did have a string of red glowing lights wound around our headboard and that was some pretty cool ambiance lighting.
I guess..."sensory overload" is not really in either of our vocabulary....though decorations don't really play a large part in our homes, either. My favorite decorations that I make a priority of are the pictures I scatter liberally around the place. If I can't wear it or eat it or use it for something, I don't tend to like spending money on it, so the only 'decor' items we had were given to us (all of our Christmas decor was wedding presents since we got married so close to Christmas!) and weren't really my style.
Hey, I definitely support not wasting money on decor if you don't want to! Decor doesn't bother or annoy me in the slightest, I have no feelings of animosity toward it, but it's not a necessary part of life. It's a luxury that some enjoy and some don't.

Michelle said...

Aw, I love seasonal decorating!! Though I'll admit, I don't do a ton of it due to funds and laziness. But I love a few pumpkins and a wreath in the fall, and a sparkly tree at Christmas time. A lot of my decorations I've either made or they've been handed down and are very special to me. But I can be obnoxiously festive when it comes to certain holidays. I understand that not everyone is :) I just think it makes my home even cozier and happier.

Angi said...

Because it's FUN! We definitely don't go all out like some people do, decorating for every. single. holiday (I know people who decorate their entire house for St. Patricks' Day, for crying out loud!) but I do love hanging up a fall wreath and putting a few cute fall decorations out, and then definitely decorating for Christmas...a wreath on the front door, a Christmas tree, lights on the outside of the house, etc. We just think it's festive and fun, a lot of our stuff is homemade too, and it's not really hurting anything.


Some people would think it's completely nutso that people like us buy a crap ton of yarn we don't necessarily "need". ;)

Charlotte Wood said...

I support any idea that will keep us Americans from buying more cheap junk we don't need that we will throw away later. We do decorate for Christmas, but I don't get excited about it. My husband does get excited. I have to tie him down to prevent him from decorating before Thanksgiving. He wants to put a tree up right now.

Paula Merrill said...

I love decorating, and if I wasn't lazy and poor, I would do a little more than I do. I definitely don't decorate for every holiday, I try to for the seasons and then Christmas and maybe Valentine's Day & Easter. It's nice and refreshing. I like changing up little parts and a few decorations. I get a different look and don't feel bored by seeing the same thing all the time. It's like a mini room makeover every few months!

Brita Long said...

Hahahaha, I think you'll like the post I have planned for November 26. Basically, I agree with you, to an extent. I like to add little seasonal touches, but I don't understand the people who have so much holiday decor that it becomes a huge ordeal. Like I have a beautiful hand-painted pottery jack-o-lantern with BRITA spelled out as the mouth that I custom-ordered from and then painted at a "Paint Your Own Pottery" place in high school. It's special, and it goes up for October and November. But it's the only thing I've put up every year.


I'm going to make an ornament wreath this year for Dan and me. I loved the one I made for his parents last year, and I really want one for us this year. I bought all the ornaments on clearance the day after Christmas last year. Otherwise, my Christmas decorations will be to buy another small tree like we had last year, decorate it with my beautiful collection of special ornaments acquired over the years, and maybe hang up some leftover lights from our wedding reception around the house.

Carolynn said...

the thought of a mini room makeover sounds stressful and boring to me! Maybe I am just wired differently, hah!

Carolynn said...

it's just so much work. I'd rather be knitting ^____^

Carolynn said...

yes to all of this, and also I can totally see Angel being ecstatic about shiny things. :P :P

I had a pair of light up shoes when I was a kid. Best thing ever. Loved making them light up in the middle of "personal" prayer time at church and making my mom glare at me over the dimming lights. Hahah!

Cody Doll said...

****CLAPS EXCITINGLY (over and over and over)*** FINALLY, someone that get me. I love Christmas but I hate hearing the same ten/twelve songs over and over and over. It's ridiculous. I also totally agree with needing to redecorate the entire house. I am for adding a little holiday magic to the house but not an entire NEW house. It's just stuff. It's stuff we aren't suppose to be attached to because Jesus taught us that. Crazy how you were meet with blank stares. Did they forget the lesson of Martha and Mary when Jesus meet them?
Girl you totally beat me to the punch on this one. I am going to be posting my ideas about Christmas and how to have wonderful Christmas without the world on my blog next week (so keep an eye out). =]
Just know that you aren't alone. (Do you ever feel like we are the only two? haha)

corrie ander said...

Well aren't you a special little snowflake, so different from all the other womens and being so unique. Get over yourself.

Kristin said...

I just thought about this today as I drove by house after house decorated for Christmas. I honestly felt I was lazy not wanting to do it, or less put together/able to juggle everyday life and holiday life like everyone else. Then I realized maybe it was just my personal taste, I'm one of the weird ones that doesn't see the point to go through all of the hassle. Maybe it seems like a better idea for people once they have kids?

Carolynn said...

yes, exactly! I think I will do something when/if I have kids for their

imaginations :P Thank you for all your thoughtful comments on my blog! I've enjoyed each and every one of them when I checked my mail this morning :)