Singles: Do you decorate for Christmas?

I even pointed out that I would be making a personal sacrifice since its a cold time of year and being naked in the cold makes her look better and me look worse.

 

Thanks for your thoughts, Irish. I'm going to ruminate on them and make a decision on that box in the corner that keeps me taunting me.

 

There's good naked, and there's bad naked.

 

I put a Santa hat on my blowup doll.

 

We went all out decorating our apartment the past two years. This year, though, the fact that it's like 70 degrees every day means it doesn't feel like Xmas and so we're just content playing some Xmas music. It's tough to get excited for the season without snow.

 

I talked to GR tonight (one of my two kids out at university in Nova Scotia) who lives with five other guys on the football team.

They bought a fake tree and decorated it as well as most of the house.

I asked him why and he just said, "Duh, it's Christmas" even though he'll be home a week Tuesday.

But this is a kid who's majoring in philosophy so go figure.

 

She's nine kinds of crazy for Christmas decorations. Not one but two nativity scenes are already out. Inside lights, a tree.
Crazy.
Chapter 8 is going to be a great one. That's all I'll say for now.

 

I've been trying to get away from the secular trappings of the Xmas Experiences for a while now, but I think circumstances are going to allow me to accelerate that movement this year. Hell, I may go to Christmas Eve service and then run away to an undisclosed location for Christmas Day itself.

 

I'm not single, but if I were, I'd still decorate. If the hubby had it his way, not a single flutter of Christmas decor would grace the inside or outside of the house. He just doesn't really care about it. I, on the other hand, do. I live away from my entire family, and Christmas reminds me of the wonderful Christmases from when I was growing up.

I grew up in the country, and I can remember going out in the woods with my dad to find a tree. I remember one particular time, when it was me, Mom and Dad (not sure where my sister was). Together, we'd found the "perfect" tree. I was so excited about it, but after Dad cut it down, I felt so sad, but I wasn't exactly sure why. As if she were reading my mind, Mom said, "I know, they are so pretty all decorated in the house, but it is a little sad to see it chopped down." (OK, that quote is a close as I can remember to what she said.)

Looking back on some of the pictures of our trees, with mostly homemade decorations gives me a chuckle. They weren't always the fullest of trees, in fact, some were down right homely looking. The decorations really make me laugh. They were mostly made by me and my sister, and the rest were pretty cheezy. I think we had, maybe, one box of the colored glass balls on the tree. The lights were also haphazardly placed on the tree, probably due to the random limbs and bare spots. But as a child, I never once had a negative thought about the looks of our Christmas tree. To me, it was always perfect.

Oh and lest we not forget about the importance of Santa in my house...importance which prompted my dad's oozing story I explained in the Santa? thread.

There was all the stuff at church with my parents and sister. Every child in the church, along with some of the adults, took part in the Christmas play. I can remember the year I was the angel. It was so scary, because I was standing on a wobbly microwave-like cart that was covered with a white sheet. I was so afraid of falling.

One year, my all-time favorite doll was used as the baby Jesus. Skip ahead about 20 years, and my nephew landed the roll. He was five months old at the time. This is the same nephew from the Santa? thread that told me Santa was dead.

When I was (about) seven, I was saved on a Wednesday night after practice for the upcoming Christmas play at church. Looking back on it now, it seems like a very young age to decide to give my heart to the Lord, but no one had prompted me to come to this decision. I just pulled my mom to the side and told her that I knew this is what I wanted to do, and I wanted to do it that night.

Christmas was also a big deal for the extended family. We were all living in the same county, which was great. All the aunts, uncles and cousins gathered at my grandparents house. We exchanged gifts, had a huge Christmas dinner and watched the Christmas specials on TV. One of my cousins and I (we were only three months apart) would put on our own Christmas play. Most years, it was just thrown together at the last minute, but I remember one year, we "rehearsed" over the phone for a couple of weeks. When we would go with a religious theme, one of us would wear our grandmother's brown robe and the other would wear her blue one. We'd be Mary and Joseph, and for some reason, we always wore her wigs (I can't believe she actually let us put them on).

There was a huge falling-out in the family, so the year I was 13 was the last year we had a big family gathering like that. My grandmother was already sick by then, and passed away a few weeks before I turned 18. Less than a week after the funeral, I left the state, and have lived in Georgia since.

In a way, I mourn at Christmastime for what it used to be like for me. But instead of being sad about what I don't have, I try to be happy about the good years I once had. I may not have a huge family to celebrate Christmas with, but I don't need them to enjoy the time of year. I can be happy about it all by myself.

It can be alot of work to get all the decorating done (again, hubby doesn't care about decorations, so I'm on my own getting those done), but it makes me feel good to see them. Every year, I find myself sitting on the couch, just staring at the tree. I could stare at it for a long time.

For one, I have a TON of lights on my tree. I also have a ton of decorations. What's funny, is the ones that I have the most of, the ones that make it the most pretty, are the ones I bought cheaply in bulk, like the colored balls and stuff. Oh and also, the biggest and best addition to my tree (which I added last year) were poinsettias and berries. They are just the kind for flower arrangements, but I stick mine into the tree. I have a big box full of them. They were really cheap. Some I picked up at Wal-Mart, some I picked up at the Dollar Tree. They are so pretty and add so much red to the tree, that I swear you could do lights and just those and it would look amazing (it would also only take a few minutes to decorate the whole thing).

I really wish I had kids to share my Christmas with, but it just hasn't been in the cards for me yet. Until then, I'll keep going all out for myself. Oh, I also have a few yard decorations. I have icicle lights for the roof, but I have to plead with the hubby to put those up. I'm not a big fan of being up on the second roof (split-level). They usually don't get put up, since it's up to him to do it.

Anyway, now that I have over-explained it all, I just want to say that you don't have to have someone else to have a reason to decorate for Christmas. Do it for yourself.

 

Bought and decorated my tree on Friday.
Since I've been on my own, I've always at least got a tree to decorate. Granted, the first few years were while I was living in sin, but ...
No sin living this year, and I still decorated.

 

When there was 2 of us, I did the whole thing...live tree, outdoor lights, etc. etc. I have a small fortune invested in Hallmark ornaments.

Now that it's just me, I do just a few little things. I'm never there so it's fine.

 

I have no inclination to decorate ... Christmas is just another day to me.

If I absolutely must scratch a festive itch, I can go look at the hotel across the street. They have decked the ever-loving crap out of their halls.