More For Christmas

/ Ann Coleman

Generally speaking, I’m a firm believer in the old saying “less is more.”  I don’t want or need a closet the size of a small bedroom to store my clothes;  I don’t dream of living in a huge mansion, and if I had the choice between winning fifty million dollars or five hundred million dollars, I’d pick fifty.  Because seriously, what can you do with five hundred million that you can’t do with fifty million?  In short, excess is just not my thing.

IMG_0935Which is why I am always surprised when the Christmas season rolls around and I inevitably find myself wanting more….of just about everything.  I have so many antique Christmas ornaments that they don’t even fit on the two trees (three, if you count my little ornament tree) that I put up every year, but I still buy more.  I buy my family a reasonable amount of gifts, and then, at the last minute, I find myself buying just a few more.  The lights we hang outside our house look just fine, but I’m always trying to figure out where we can hang another strand..or two.

IMG_0948I don’t pretent to understand why the holidays effect me this way, I only know that they do.  It’s the only time of year when I eat so many sweets that I have an almost continual stomach-ache, and yet still find myself reaching into the cookie jar for just one more snicker doodle.  It’s the only time of the year when I will stay up long after I am tired, just so I can sit in the living room a little bit longer, looking at the Christmas tree and listening to Nat King Cole sing carols.  And Christmas Eve is the only day of the entire year when I think I would go to church twice if I could talk my husband into it…I like the candle light service that much.

Now that we’re in the week between Christmas and New Years, I am slowly recovering from my annual fit of Christmas greed.  I still have a few celebrations with family and friends to attend, and I still have a refrigerator and pantry stuffed with holiday goodies, but I’m not baking any more and each day I find it a bit easier to resist the temptation to pig out yet again.  And in another week I’ll begin taking down my decorations and packing them away carefully for next year.

I know there’s probably some reason I tend to celebrate Christmas with such wild abandon.  Maybe I’m trying to recapture the Christmas excitement I felt as a child, or maybe my elaborate decorations are a feeble attempt to make the world around me just a little bit brighter.  It’s possible I’m reacting to the mixture of memories and emotions that the Christmas season brings, since it’s a time when both the joy and the sorrow we feel are much more intense.  I honestly don’t know.

I do know that while I really love Christmas, I’m also glad it only comes once a year.   I don’t think I could handle it more often than that.  My jeans will only stretch so far….

22 thoughts on “More For Christmas”

  1. I’m with you on the eating part, Ann. I dint know why I find it necessary to eat things that I don’t usually eat during the year, and do it in excess, no less. But then, maybe it’s our way of celebrating a time we really enjoy and it becomes our treat to ourselves, whether its food or ornaments. Once a year…that’s not so bad..:) hope you had a great Christmas.😊

    Liked by 1 person

  4. I feel the same way about excess; but it’s good to go all out once in awhile so as not to feel like you’re missing out on anything. By the way your Christmas tree is very beautiful… Nicely decorated Ann☺️

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Too true! Love reading your blog,, you write so beautifully. Speaking of Christmas excess, do you remember my first year in St. Louis (after you helped get me a job at St. Gabe’s!) when I thought it would be a great idea to buy the biggest tree I could find and stuff in in my Plymouth Horizon and you helped me carry it? Fun times! Miss you, Louise

    Liked by 1 person

    • Yes!! I remember that so well! Your first apartment in St. Louis on Nottingham, and we got that great tree which we both thought was the perfect size. Until we had to get it in your car, and up the stairs to your apartment! But in our defense, it did look great…. Merry Christmas and Happy New year, my friend!

      Like

  8. Woah! You do have a lot of Christmas ornaments for your tree. It’s always fun hanging them up. I’m not as big a fan of taking them down, though.

    Although I sometimes indulge in a bit of gentle moaning about some aspects of it (huge lines in stores, etc.), Christmas is basically a time of year I really love. But you’re right: it’s a good thing that it finishes when it does. There’s not way I could keep up the same frantic pace of merry-making for even just another couple of days.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. I love Christmas decorations! I can look at them all year long! Meaning in the stores. People moan and groan when stores put them out in October, but I love seeing them. Christmas decorations just make me happy. 🙂 Why do we go to excess? My theory is it’s a time of celebration, and if we can’t go to excess when we celebrate, what is the fun in celebrating? And one time a year? Eh! Enjoy yourself, and don’t worry about it. By the way, I love the old fashioned ornaments. I see a few in your collection that I also have.

    Liked by 1 person

    • I’m a bit nuts about old fashioned ornaments! The picture shows only about half of the ones we put on our upstairs tree, and we have another (although smaller) tree downstairs, too. But I agree completely: Christmas decorations make me happy, too!

      Liked by 1 person

      • Whenever I buy a new ornament or decoration, I always place either on the bottom of the decoration, or on its box, the year we got the ornament, and if given to us, who gave it to us. It just adds to the nostalgia and memory behind each one.

        Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.