So, it’s the seventh of December, and I don’t have the tree up yet. Or the decorations. Our house is looking decidedly un-Christmassy. But whyyyyy would I do such a thing?!
- Disclaimer: This isn’t my Christmas tree
- Our house is small. Our tree is big. As soon as the tree goes up, I start feeling stressed and cramped and overwhelmed by Christmas. All the other decorations just add to the clutter and colour and mess! There’s enough of that everywhere else I go. My house feels like a bit of a haven from it all at the moment!
- I have a crawling, standing, curious nine month old. I’ll be very surprised if he doesn’t tip the whole tree over before Christmas Day. And forget about presents underneath the tree. That’s just asking for trouble.
- Having the tree up will no doubt remind me hourly of how much I have to do before Christmas. Christmas shopping, pudding making, crafting, baking, kinder stuff… My to-do list has to-do lists at the moment.
- The tree is in the shed. There are also spiders in the shed. Big ones. And redback ones. And we’ve had real trees for the last two years, so I’m a bit scared that a family of mice or rats may have taken up residence in the tree box. Think The Builder can deal with that one.
- I need a good couple of hours to untangle lights, get the tree assembled and decorated. Probably more if I have ‘helpers’. Perhaps I can ask for a couple of extra hours for Christmas? Except then it will be too late to put the tree up. Oh well.
No really, the tree will go up. I’ll put up with the cramped lounge room for a couple of weeks (and then manically pull the whole thing down on Boxing Day!) And I’ll love it. The magic, the smell of the plastic, the memories that go with the special decorations we have, the fun we will have decoration (and re-decorating), the boys’ excitement, the wrapping of presents, the reminder to be joyful and festive, the chats about the real meaning of Christmas.
I’m only a little bah humbug. It’ll soon get all jollied out of me.
How about you? Is there a part of the season that you get all bah humbug about?
Around Here 
We didn’t even own a Christmas tree until we had children. Then for the first two years of our eldest child’s life the tree didn’t go up until he was in bed on Christmas Eve and then it came down in the morning of Boxing day. Now the tree goes up the week after our daughter’s birthday – which is Dec 13… so this year we’ll probably put it up the weekend of 18/19 Dec. A week will be enough. Then it will come down on Boxing Day. I like Christmas … but I don’t think it needs to go for so long… short and sweet is the way around here.